The Seppuku Garden
by Desert Haze
Summary: Following the death of a Garou pack, six young shapeshifters take on a dark mystery that could change their lives forever. That is, if they don't kill each other first. A Werewolf: The Apocalypse fanfic.
1. Prologue

The Seppuku Garden  
Prologue

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Amerie "Shining Rain" Bell didn't really care for the pornographic movie Rayshaun and David insisted on playing, but she understood the guys' need to unwind. The four of them-including the half-Rottweiler Havoq-had recently gotten into a fight with a gang of fomori running a crackhouse on 61st and Woodland. A little too close to home for comfort, but the Untouchables won. They would have to account to their elders at the Sept of the Purple Haze in Cleveland's rusted east side about what happened, but for now, the four Garou just wanted to lick their wounds and relax at Rayshaun Streetsweeper's duplex apartment. He had just the video to perk up their spirits.

"Damn!" said David Walks-the-Line, "I didn't think she'd put the whole thing in her-"

"Okaaaay," Amerie interrupted, rolling her eyes, "I gotta go to the bathroom, and no y'all can't watch."

Rayshaun and David laughed as she left. "She know she wants a piece o'that," David said after making sure she was out of earshot.

Havoq was lying on the floor near the corner of Rayshaun's living room. The lupus Ahroun vaguely looked up at them then went back to sleep. Just then, someone knocked on the door. Havoq barked.

"Huh, she _is_ early," Rayshaun replied as he got up to answer the door. "Hey Mimi," he greeted the heavy-set Latina in the doorway.

"'Sup, baby," she said as they kissed. She said hi to David as she walked in, took her shoes off, and glanced at the television. "Ew, what are they doin' with that eggbeater?" she wondered, but didn't want an answer.

A faucet was heard from the bathroom, along with Amerie calling, "Who's that, Ray?"

"It's Mimi, now get your ass out here!"

"I'm comin, nigga!"

"Did you bring it?" David asked.

"Damn you can't wait to get high! Your lips turnin' black already!" Mimi said whimsically.

"Man, work was kicking my ass this afternoon," Dave replied in a thinly-Veiled reference to the battle.

She zipped open her purse, "Who you tellin. That's why I got some bomb-ass shit right..."

The house exploded in a cruel irony. A burst of flame shot through the windows of the lower-level duplex, setting off car alarms and "What the fuck!" interjections for blocks around.

At about 2:48 AM that night, the Cleveland Fire Department was dispatched to put out a fire on E. 75th and Kinsman. The caller said the house next door had exploded. Paramedic Ryn Summers didn't know what to make of this. Gas leak? Or, more likely, gang violence? But who would be so unsubtle in their attacking? She watched from the ambulance as the firefighters rushed into the blackened, smoking building.

"If the lower level exploded," her partner Tommy said, "The upper floor could collapse at any minute."

"They have to take that risk, odds are people were in there," Ryn replied.

Sure enough, a firefighter came back out a couple minutes later, carrying a young woman. Tommy ran out to meet him; Ryn got the stretcher out of the back.

"How bad is it?" Tommy asked.

"Three people and a dog were killed," the firefighter said quickly, "She's the only survivor and she's barely hanging on her damn self."

"We'll get her directly to the hospital and you guys can get body bags for the others," Ryn said as they loaded the her onto the stretcher.

As Tommy started the ambulance back up and headed for the hospital, Ryn saw to the victim. She was a mess: third-degree burns over 60 of her body, broken bones, internal bleeding. Ryn knew the girl only had one chance for survival. The Child of Gaia focused her gnostic power and said a quick prayer as she laid hands across the girl's body. Ryn smiled as the burns faded and the victim awakened.

"Uuughh...What the fuck!" she sat up in the stretcher and cried in pain from doing it so fast

"Lay down, miss, you'll be okay."

"What the hell happened? Is this an ambulance?"

"You-you were in an explosion at your house. You were badly hurt and barely survived."

"Oh I remember now, I was in the bathroom and just as it blew up I shif-" she stammered a bit- "Um, fuck all that, where are the others?"

"Miss, you really need to lay down, you're still injured."

"Where the FUCK are they!" she demanded in an unexpected thundering voice.

Ryn wasn't afraid, but knew the young woman had a right to know. She sighed, "They...they didn't make it out."


	2. C1: Untouchable

The Seppuku Garden  
C1: Untouchable

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

For security purposes, the Gathering for the Departed took place in the Umbra.The Sept of the Purple Haze's caern was located at an intentionally forgettable storefront in the east side of Cleveland. Tension in the room mounted as Garou from the west side's Forest City Sept took their seats to pay their respects as well to the fallen pack, The Untouchables. The two septs were as racially divided as the city they called home, but even they recognize that Garou is Garou, and that three of theirs had fallen in one insidious attack.

War was declared on the unknown party. But first, proper respects were to be made. The Purple Haze sept's Bone Gnawer Grand Elder said a few words on the pack, but all eyes were on Amerie Shining Rain as the Uktena Philodox and sole surviving Untouchable took to the front of the room. She looked like Aaliyah with her soft beauty, dark skin, and petite figure. One wouldn't think she had survived an explosion a week earlier.

"My cousin Rayshaun and I were the same age," she said, "but he had his First Change before me and helped found the pack. His birth tribe was Uktena like mine, but he had converted to the Bone Gnawers instead, saying that the tribe's gritty survival instinct was closer to his beliefs than the Uktena's 'far-off dreaming.' My biggest regret is not showing him that sometimes it doesn't hurt to dream. But anyway, he was the first one there when I had my Change, and helped me see things through.

"Dave was a Silent Strider and a Galliard. He was from Seattle, then did a tour of duty in Iraq where he had his Change. He settled in Cleveland afterwards because he didn't want anyone back home to see what he became. I never understood why he came to Cleveland of all places, I guess the weather reminded him of home. But yeah, he and Ray met and formed a duo of a sort. When I joined, me and him would yap until the sun came up about various things, as well as how we felt about being werewolves..." she seemed to trail off, then changed the subject. "And Havoq, we had rescued him from some underground pit fighting circuit. He never said much-he _was_ a lupus-but he'd give his life for us in a heartbeat.

"They called me 'Shining Rain' because during my Rite of Passage, it was raining but still sunny, and Rayshaun said that that was a metaphor for my life. That the sun would shine no matter how hard it rained. But I can't say I feel like the sun's out right now. In the mindless violence that takes over our lives, we never think about the people left behind. It's just...I don't know," she walked off in a hurry to another room. The others thought it best to let her be. As the Gathering drew to a close, the werewolves remained isolated in their socializing. The Purple Haze Garou did not like having the mostly white west siders around even now. Most of the Forest City crowd was quite uncomfortable in the east side anyway, and were making for a quick exit.

God that was depressing, Nolan "Vertigo" Peatross thought as he fished his apartment keys out of his pocket after getting back from the Gathering. He shared an apartment with his best friend Steve off of Clifton Blvd, in what's as close to a gay district as someplace in Cleveland gets.

"There she is!" greeted Steve. He was on the floor playing some Final Fantasy game when Nolan walked in.

"You still trying to beat that?" Nolan asked.

"Nothing was on tv. Oh, when I was at work, they were talking on the radio about how this old warehouse or whatever was blown up over on Miles in the east side, just like that house on Kinsman. Police think it's gang activity. Shit's crazy."

"Tell me about it," Nolan said ironically, "If you gotta use the bathroom, go ahead now. I need to take a bath."

"Long day?"

"Something like that."

Steve always raved about the relaxing power of smoking a bowl while taking a bath, but it only make Nolan more depressed, and the steam was making him sleepy. Was this how the Untouchables felt? So tranquil, right before the world blew up in their faces?

And what about Mimi, Rayshaun's girlfriend? The poor girl wasn't Garou, not even Kin. Nolan didn't know what he'd do if Steve got caught up in some supernatural war. They'd known each other since they were teenagers, when they met at the local LGBT community center. They were never interested in dating each other-Steve was something of a glamour queen which Nolan wasn't all that into-but instead became best friends. Thankfully, Steve wasn't around for Nolan's first change and only knew of DJ Vertigo the tastemaker at Solaris Niteclub, not Vertigo the Glass Walker Ragabash.

22-year-old Nolan never permanently joined a pack like Amerie. He instead opted for more of a courtier role: offering assistance here and there as well as keeping an eye on the goings-on at his nightclub and reporting suspicious activity. He had, however, developed a unique gift based on his namesake for when he did have to fight. He preferred things this way since it allowed him to try…no, _pretend _to live a normal life. Sure his Animal Attraction helped him get laid, but why did _he _have to be one of Gaia's ordained defenders? There were so many others who are better at this whole thing.

Nolan must have dozed off, for he soon found himself in that dreamlike state where one thinks he's awake but cannot move. He could feel himself sinking into the water. The bowl was on the side of the tub, still lit, and the smoke was closing in.

I've got to get up, Nolan thought, but his body did not respond. He could feel the warm water on his lips, and the smoke was filling his nostrils. I've got to get up. I've got to get up. I've got to get up! NOW!

Nolan lept out of the tub with inhuman force and a growl, and hit his head on the ceiling.

"You okay in there?" Steve asked from outside.

"I'm fine!" Nolan snarled.

"All right! All right! Jesus…"

As Nolan caught his breath, he realized he was in Crinos form! He quickly shifted back. His mini-frenzy had ruined the bowl, left a crack in the ceiling, broke off the shower curtain rod, and left the bathroom floor and rugs sopping wet. He wiped the fog off the mirror and studied himself. His brown eyes were bloodshot and his coarse black hair sudsy, but he was otherwise all right.

Nolan was fairly attractive. He had a lean build and some muscle definition, and his caramel complexion showed off his African and Italian heritage. Was this his real face, or a mask he was given to "pass?" Indeed, he didn't look gay or like a werewolf (even his Glabro form was fair), and could pass for Black or Italian at a given moment.

"Hey, your cell phone was ringing a second ago, by the way," Steve said, "I think they left a text."

"Was the ringtone 'Like a Virgin' or 'Doggy Dogg World?'"

"Um…'Doggy Dogg World.'"

What do they want _now?_ Nolan toweled off and went to his bedroom to check his phone. It was Carol "Iron Ghost" Fraser, CEO of Forest City Recycling. She left a text message:

"call me."

He heard Steve exclaim, "What the fuck" when he noticed the bathroom. Nonetheless, he called Carol.

"There you are!" she answered. "Did you get back okay?"

Nolan sighed, "Yeah, I'm good, I guess. What's going on?"

"Well," she sounded a little distracted, "I've been talking to the other Elders and we all agreed that whatever took out the Untouchables very well threatens the whole city. I mean, you don't kill an entire pack in one fell swoop like that."

"I take it you're using a Gift to talk directly to me," Nolan noticed.

"Of course, there's no telling who could put a phone on tap. But anyway, we asked Leroy Skin-Like-Nails, the Bone Gnawer Elder, how we could assist, and he wouldn't have any of it. He said this was a Purple Haze affair and that we needed to mind our business."

"Is that surprising? They never wanted anything to do with us."

"They're proud. They have a right to be, but I have a feeling there's more to this than they know. I want you to go talk to Amerie. I know she's been through hell, but see who the Untouchables were fighting with before they were killed."

"Then what?"

"What do you mean, 'then what?' We have a potential crisis on our hands and we need to keep it from spreading any further! Amerie works as a cashier at the Giant Eagle supermarket over on Martin Luther King and Buckeye. Mapquest it if you have to, but see if you can't meet with her at some point. Nolan I don't ask much from you, but you may be the only one of us who can make a connection."

"I guess so."

"Good, check back with me on Tuesday and tell me how it went. I gotta go, but I'll talk to you later, dear. Buh-bye."

Nolan said bye and hit the red button on his phone. He knew how to read between the lines of what Carol said. Since he's the only black member of the Forest City sept, the Purple Hazers might be more inclined to talk to him. Nolan wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, but they did need to know what was going on. Nonetheless, he threw the phone on the bed and went to clean the bathroom. What the hell happened to had him in there?


	3. C2: Family Ties

The Seppuku Garden  
C2: Family Ties

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

It was around noon when Nolan got to the supermarket where Amerie worked. Sure enough, she was at her register smiling sweetly at customers, but he knew it masked how she felt inside. Hmm, what would his womanizing older brother do at a time like this? Nolan got a sympathy card and a 12" ham and turkey sub from the deli department (he _did_ skip breakfast).

"That comes to 9.13," she said after scanning the items. Nolan gave her a ten.

"87 cents is your change; have a nice day."

"That all depends. Y'see, the card's for you." he said as he offered it back to her.

She gave him an annoyed look. "Sir, I'm really not in the mood right now."

"I know. I figured this would help, for starters. Go ahead and read it, it'll only take a sec."

Amerie sighed and almost snatched the card from him. It was a cheap Hallmark with some plastic saying on it. She opened it and to her surprise, the inside note was written in Garou:

"I'm really sorry about what happened and I want to help in any way I can. -Vertigo" She looked up at him.

"...Or Nolan, if you prefer," he said.

Amerie noticed she had a couple waiting customers who looked a little annoyed. She quickly said to Nolan, "I'm taking my lunch break at one. Meet me around the back and you better not be playing games."

Nolan was smoking a cigarette as he waited for Amerie. She came out of the back door marked "Employees only" with her purse and kindly refused when he offered her a smoke. "You really don't have to be doing all this. A wolf pack over here already invited me to join them."

"That's cool and all, but I'm sure you can understand why we're worried too."

"I guess so. So what did you want to ask me?"

"Who were you guys fighting with?"

"Well…what happened was, our totem Rat gave us a tip about a crackhouse run by a Black Spiral Dancer over on 61st and Woodland. We went over there and...the addicts were all fomori. There were eight or so; one looked like she was only 12 years old. We had to kill them all. Rayshaun took out the Spiral Dancer. But the problem was that he was a Metis, and we couldn't just leave a body laying around. So I did a Rite of Summoning and called a flame spirit. He burned away all the evidence as we got out of there. That's when I noticed one of the fomori got away. We weren't worried, we knew her scent and could track her down later.

"Was it Mimi?"

"No...I don't know, I was in the bathroom when she came over that last time."

"How'd you survive the explosion?"

"I shifted to Crinos right before it happened, out of instinct, but the walls took the brunt of it. I was still hit pretty hard though. They were taking me to the hospital in an ambulance and this paramedic, she was this white girl maybe my age, and I don't know if she was a mage or another werewolf or what, but I think she used the Mother's Touch on me or something because I was way less hurt than I should have been."

"Ain't that something. On a side note, if you guys raided a crackhouse run by a BSD, that puts an interesting twist on things. I'm a DJ at Solaris Niteclub and we've been suspecting that some of the patrons might be selling drugs. Some of the Garou tried to Sense the Wyrm over there, but you know how _everything_ smells of the Wyrm in the city. But now, maybe there's something we need to pay attention to."

"Funny how your club's called Solaris. I was actually born under the month of Katanka-Sonnak, the Sun Incarna, and Theurges say that's why he wanted to watch my Passage. She looked at her watch, "I need to get back to work. I'm off tomorrow though, maybe we can talk some more."

"Meet me at the recycling center in the morning," Nolan said, "We'll go from there."

Amerie could barely concentrate on the drive home from work. She wanted to be upset that that Glass Walker came to her job all high-stepping like that, and that the Forest City Sept thought sending in their only black member would make some kind of difference. But she knew she'd be foolish to turn down rheir help. They could very well know something in this whole plot. And for maybe the third time in her life, Amerie was actually worried about staying alive.

She saw her aunt Beverly's anguish at Rayshaun's closed-casket funeral service. Amerie did not wish to put her own mother through such hell, but that was the risk she had to take. She pulled the car over. I have to tell her, she thought. She's Kin, she has a right to know. Amerie pulled out her cell phone and dialed her mother's number.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hey Mama, it's Amerie. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, what's up?"

"Do you have a minute? I want to talk to you about something."

"Is this about Rayshaun?"

"Um…sort of, but I'd rather not tell you over the phone."

Her mother sighed, "Okay, come on through, I'm here."

Sandra Bell was a stern woman in her early 50's. She raised four kids alone in Cleveland's dangerous Central neighborhood, and still called the district home. There wasn't much she hadn't seen, but Amerie wasn't quite sure about that. Sandra was having a glass of wine in the living room, listening to Anita Baker when Amerie got there.

"Hey Mama."

"Hey sweetie, come sit down."

Amerie sighed as she sat down and poured herself a glass. Gaia knew she needed it for what she was about to do.

"So what did you want to talk about? Something about Rayshaun?"

"Well, sort of. It wasn't exactly gang violence that got him and our friends killed." She sipped her wine. "Y'see there are things going on around here, behind the scenes that people don't realize."

"Were the police involved?" Sandra asked.

Amerie took another sip, "No, even they're controlled by…outside forces. It's like…" she finished her glass.

"What, Mafia?"

Ameria got up and took a swig from the bottle itself, ignoring her mother's disgust. Then she said, "Okay, this ain't easy to explain and you wouldn't believe me if I tried, so I'm just gonna show you." Amerie shifted to Glabro.

"What did you just do? Did you get…bigger?"

"There's more," Amerie said as she concentrated for a second time and sifted to her terrifying Crinos form. Sandra dropped her drink and stepped back, covering her mouth in shock. Amerie's fur was black with patches of brown and she stood at a little under eight feet tall, almost hitting her head on the ceiling. To finish the show, Amerie shifted to Hispo, then to Lupus, then back to Homid.

"I'm a werewolf," she said bluntly. So was Rayshaun. that other boy David, and their dog Havoq; we were a pack. We fought to save the planet and some folks didn't like that and wanted us dead."

Sandra was rubbing her temples, "Mercy, mercy, Jesus," she said, then looked up. "And since you're the only survivor, you think you're next and decided to come clean. I should have known, though. Ever since you were a little girl, all the signs were there from the start. I just didn't want to see them; I thought it was just in my head because you weren't like your sisters or your brother."

"You're making it sound like I'm a lesbian," Amerie said, "And how'd you know what to look for?"

"Come upstairs with me, I want to show you something.".

Amerie followed her mother to the basement. Dust flew everywhere as Sandra dug through old boxes.

"Here it is," she said as she pulled out a nondescript brown box.

"What is it?" Amerie asked.

"I think you'll know," Sandra gave it to her. Amerie opened it and dug through wads of newspaper until she came across something wrapped in a yellowed May Company sales ad. She removed the wrapping and found…

"Mama, this is a klaive!" Amerie said in surprise. The blade was carved with Garou glyphs and had a zebra-print handle.

"When your grandmother passed, we were cleaning out her house and I found that in the attic," Sandra explained, "It was your grandfather's. I know I don't talk about him that much; he died before y'all were born. But he was a werewolf, calling himself an Uktana I think."

"Uktena," Amerie corrected."

"Well, he gave me and your aunt the same speech you were just stammering through (I think he had to drink just as much), then left for some big fight, something about killing a worm." Sandra sighed, "He didn't make it back. They gave your grandmother that klaive and told her to give it to the next Garou born from the family line. I knew at some point I had to show it to you but as long as I knew it was down here, I could deny the truth. But denial can be deadly."

Amerie sighed, "Ain't that the truth."

Tears streamed down her mother's face, "Thank you for being straight with me."


	4. C3: Shadow Games

The Seppuku Garden  
C3: Shadow Games

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Forest City Recycling was a large recycling center in the west side of Cleveland. Some Bone Gnawer Kinfolk made a quick buck by turning in aluminum cans and whatnot, but the actual BG kept their distance. (they and the mostly-black and Latino urban Uktena made up the Sept of the Purple Haze in the east side). Anyway, Nolan had met with Carol a little earlier that morning to discuss what Amerie told him.

"When Nolan said there were covert drug dealers involved," Carol said when Amerie arrived, "I figured we could use get some outsider eyes in here; someone who could pick up on the things we might take for granted."

"You called in a favor?" Amerie asked.

"Something to that effect. He crossed over on the Moon Bridge a little while ago." She called outside her office, "Michael, could you come in here please?" Nolan and Amerie turned to see a hulking young man enter. He was at least 6'5" with a broad, dense build and short sandy hair.

"Yes, Orange-rhya?" he said.

Rhya? Amerie wondered. It's an antiquated Garou suffix for elder; who the hell says that anymore?

Carol continued, "This is Michael Strides-in-Crimson. He's a Fianna Ahroun from the sept down in Hinckley Township. He agreed to lend a hand in this matter." Mike looked away as he shook their hands.

The phone rang; Carol glanced at the ID. "I have to take this. Bring Mike up to speed in the meantime. You guys can use the conference room down the hall if you want."

"What do we know so far?" Mike asked after they went over to the conference room..

"Well," Amerie said, "What's left of the duplex reeks of the Wyrm. But there's no trail to follow. Whatever went in there ain't leave."

"What about that girl who met with your pack?"

"Mimi? She was Rayshaun's girlfriend. Why would she blow up herself and her man?"

"Could she have been possessed?" Mike wondered.

Nolan and Amerie exchanged glances. The Untouchables had been fighting fomori for some time, but they didn't know how far the blight had spread.

"...But wait a sec, fomori might be insane but they're typically not suicidal. Well, besides openly fighting Garou," Nolan said.

"Maybe she didn't know she was carrying a bomb," said Mike.

"Well then she might not have been a fomor," Amerie said, a little annoyed.

"Just a thought," Mike resigned, "But anyway, I heard on the news that a storefront on Miles was blown up too."

"Miles!" Amerie asked; she knew the place, but did not want to say how.

"Maybe we can check it out and - OW!" a sharp pain hit Mike's neck. He touched it and found a dart!

"There!" Nolan pointed at a shadowy outline making for the door. Amerie went after it as did Mike, who sprung into Crinos form. Nolan pulled the fire alarm.

Mike raged through the halls in search for the intruder. A couple men saw him and ran off in a delerious horror. He heard a voice in his mind.

"MIKE!" It was Carol, "Go back to Homid NOW!" She caught up with him to scold him in person.

"I don't care what's going on, there are non-kin humans here. You are NOT to shapeshift here without prior notice!"

"I-I"msorryRhyaitwasjustyouknowaspurofthemomentthinglike-"

"It's okay it's okay! Just be more careful next time. And you can stop…cutting yourself."

"Huh? Oh," Mike had taken the dart and was cutting traintracks on his wrist. They soon faded.

"Give me that!" Amerie walked over and snatched the dart, "This could be poison!"

Nolan eventually returned. "No sign of the intruder," he said, "Um, Mike?"

He had taken a switchblade out of his pocket and was slicing down his arm again. "Oh sorry, I tend to do that when I'm, uh, stressed."

"Um, right. There's a note rolled on here, by the way" Amerie noticed. She took it off the shaft and read, "Keep your eyes open at Solaris tonight."

"Solaris?" Mike asked.

"The club I DJ at," Nolan explained.

"How did he know to follow you to this caern?" Mike asked.

"I don't know, but this sounds more like a warning than a threat," Nolan said. "It's going on three now, I have to be at work at seven. I can keep an eye on things from the DJ booth but if someone can be on the floor, that would be great."

"If y'all want to do that, that's cool and all," Amerie said, "But I should go check out where that other building blew up on Miles."

"We should come with you," Mike said.

"Don't worry about it. If you're keeping watch at Solaris, you might want to get ready first. A new outfit for starters."

"What's wrong with this?" Mike was wearing faded black jeans and a black AC/DC t-shirt with cracked printing.

"For what you're gonna be doing, you want to blend in, not go in there looking like some mountain man."

Mike groaned.

On the drive to Beachwood Place, Nolan's favorite mall, the silence in the car was quite thick. It gave Nolan some time to count in his head how much this damn makeover would set him back, but Mike seemed transfixed the way he stared out the window.

"Y'know," Nolan started, "Carol probably didn't mean to go off on you like that. It's just, we city wolves can't be as free with our forms like you guys. And I've been down to the Sept of the Fire Ledges before; it's really nice. It's cool how you guys have that whole space to yourselves."

"Thanks," he was hugging himself and looked a little tense. Then Nolan realized that Mike wasn't hugging himself but cutting his upper arm.

"Hey! Be careful! At least for my seats!"

"Sorry!" Mike let the cut heal and wiped off the remaining blood with his shirt.

"Nervous?"

"We should probably be helping Amerie," Mike said suddenly.

"She's a big girl, she can handle herself."

"But don't you think it's weird how she's the only survivor of the previous attack, and now she wants to see this new one alone?"

"It crossed my mind. But I'm also worried about what's be happening at Solaris. Someone went to a lot of trouble to tip me about tonight."

"Or distract you."

"Let's just work with what we've got. But if nothing happens at Solaris by eleven or so and we haven't seen/heard from Amerie by that time either, we'll go from there."

"I guess so."


	5. C4: Blood Borne

The Seppuku Garden  
C4: Blood Borne

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

When Amerie got fairly close to the storefront on Denison, she assured her privacy and shifted to Lupus; better to sniff things out. The building was a blackened mess, taped off by the police. There was a cop car out in front, but no one seemed to be around. Once she got inside, she noticed that the building's structure was intact for the most part, though everything was burned. The smell of smoke lingered in the air, as did Wyrm taint. Was there a connection? And where would she go if there was?

After the fiasco this afternoon, she thought it better to leave the Forest City Sept and their neurotic Fianna "help" to their own devices. Nolan was kind, though, it would be nice to get to know him better. Still, the C-Squad pack from her own sept had been there for her ever since the Untouchables were killed. The C-Squad are followers of Coyote as a totem and their ways _are _a bit erratic, though. And how would everyone react if they discovered the secret the Untouchables had been keeping from them, regarding the inhabitants of this building?

Don't tell me they're all dead now, she thought, though her wolf-keen senses could smell the faint traces of burnt flesh. She shifted to Hispo to move a chunk of rubble from a door leading to the basement. The door fell when its only support moved, and out from behind it fell two dead bodies. Amerie had mistakenly chosen a closet door, but the bodies-two police officers-were not burnt and the only marks on them were a pair of puncture wounds on both of their necks...

Oh no, she thought, then heard a gun cock. She turned arund to face an eight-foot monster with four arms and legs. The apparently female creature had eight eyes and bristly black fur. She sneered as she fired a shot. Amerie tried to dodge but the bullet caught her hind quarter. It didn't hurt, much, but it was clear that this bitch meant business.

The creature said in a hissing voice, "You should have never come back here, Spiral whore!"

She thinks I'm a Black Spiral Dancer, Amerie thought. She shifted to Crinos form and quickly thought on her feet. She didn't want to kill the girl, but the werespider was clearly in no mood to talk.

"I ain't no Spiral Dancer!" she said.

"Liar!" the creature got ready to fire another shot. Amerie used her magic to ensnare the spider-girl in four thick shadow-tendrils. Then the girl suddenly broke down into a horde of smaller spiders.

Amerie was half-expecting that; she used another trick of hers to envelope the spiders in the debris that was all over the place. It would the girl a good minute to crawl out. As she did so, Amerie shifted back to Homid form.

"My name's Amerie Shining Rain; I'm an Uktena. Me and my pack the Untouchables been here before. Don't you remember me?"

By now, the spider girl was almost finished reconstructing her body. "Amerie?" the young Latina said, "I didn't know that was you, I'm so sorry!"

"'Sokay, Juanita," Amerie replied, "What happened here?"

Before Juanita could answer, someone from outside yelled, "Who's in there?"

The middle-aged cop walked in to find a stray dog sniffing around. It barked at him. "Get outta here!" He yelled. It complied, surprisingly enough, then cocked its head in a weird way as if telling someone to follow it. The cop looked down and jumped when he saw a mass of spiders on the floor. They vaguely went in the same direction as the dog. He would have to call Animal Control about the stray, but he could have sworn he heard two girls talking in here. He looked around for awhile, then stumbled upon the bodies of the two dead officers.

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

It was one of the Untouchables' more bizarre adventures. An Uktena kin on the Police force tipped them about a string of murders that seemed to be the work of vampires except for the excessive amount of webbing at the scene. The pack investigated and found themselves in the middle of a war between the Kindred and the werespiders, collectively known as Ananasi. The Untouchables managed to resolve the issue (the Prince of Cleveland was hoping the Garou would suspect the werespiders and kill them, thus reducing the hunting competition), then teamed with a few werespiders to kill the coterie largely instigating the conflict. Afterwards, the pack swore secrecy to the Ananasi and even told its elders that the killers were part of a strange Gangrel bloodline and that werespiders have never settled in Cleveland in the first place.

The girls trotted to a back alley and shifted back to Homid, then went to Amerie's car and drove to her apartment on the Eastside.

"You hungry?" Amerie asked on the way.

"I'm good, I just ate," Juanita said wryly. Amerie pretended not to hear that. "Where are the guys?" Juanita asked.

Amerie sighed, "They were killed a couple weeks ago in an explosion, just like your colony. That's why I came around. When I heard what happened, I thought there might have been a connection. You thought I was a Black Spiral Dancer. What they got to do with this?"

Juanita sighed and looked down at the dashboard. "Y'see, the Ananasi serve all three members of the Triat. Most of my colony worked under the Wyld, but four served the Wyrm. They're called the Hatar, and got in a fight with the rest of us, the Kumoti, and left the colony. We came to find out later they shacked up with the Black Spiral Dancers."

"Where though?" Amerie asked, "We ran into a Dancer ourselves but we thought she was solo."

"I don't know. But anyway, the Hatar gang's leader is Dmitri Stone. He's tall, white, kinda pale. He's a Viskr, a mystic, who knows how to redo the Weaver's web. He can take on a Mage if he wanted to. The Kumoti were afraid of him, but didn't let it show. Everything happened so fast after that. I was out running errands and when I got back, the place was in flames. The police found a couple bodies, but I kept looking anyway hoping someone might have survived. But I didn't see anyone, not even in the Umbra. What happened to you guys?"

"It's a long story…"


	6. C5: Real Panic at the Disco

The Seppuku Garden  
C5: Real Panic at the Disco

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Mike was surprisingly agreeable during the camoflauging operation (or, "makeover" for short), Nolan noticed. After a haircut, shave, and some new clothes (buttonfly jeans and a tight black t-shirt), he looked like a pro football player out on the town and was almost handsome. It was around 9:00 when they got to Solaris and even then the club had some people milling about.

"I have to get to work," Nolan said, "We've got a band performing tonight so maybe I can check up on you while they're on. In the meantime, go ahead and walk around. Show this to the bartender-" he gave Mike a VIP card, "-and drinks are half-off. There's also an acoustic lounge downstairs that has a mellower feel if you want to check that out."

"How can let you know if I spot someone?"

"Like this," Nolan said in Mike' mind, "As long as we don't break this mindlink you can tell me when something's going on." With that, Nolan set himself up in the DJ booth. "And remember, try to have a good time while you're at it," he added.

Easy for you to say, he thought outside of the link. Mike had never been to a night club before and wasn't quite sure how to act. He ordered a beer from the bar and sat down in the corner, eying the clientele. His senses didn't pick up anything thick in terms of Wyrm taint. Not yet, anyway. An hour or so later, he noticed some people onstage, probably the band getting their set ready, and the place was getting full of people. He could feel his agoraphobia kicking in and fought every urge to pull out his pocket knife. Have to look normal, he thought. He looked over at Nolan, who was smoking a cigarette while working the booth and every so often would chat it up with some girls who came by. He seemed so natural at this. Mike almost felt envious of the Homid with his social grace and good looks.

Still, the noisy, crowded bar got to be too much and Mike quickly left for the accoustic lounge. It had a much more serene feel. Some R&B song was playing. A few yuppie friends were lounging around, talking and laughing as though they came here after work everyday. Mike knew their world could never be his. He took a seat at the bar and ordered another beer. A redhead sat next to him. She had green eyes and freckles, and was wearing a peasant skirt and a tank top. She as rather homely in appearance, but her presence felt calming. She ordered a margarita then smiled at him.

"Long night?" she asked.

He wasn't quite sure what to say, then Nolan came over the mindlink.

"Hey, I think we've got trouble."

"What's wrong?"

"My friend Steve came by. He's with some guy he picked here, and the guy has lady friend. Steve looks drunk off his ass and something feels...wrong with the other two. The band's doing their thing so I've some time to myself. We're on our way down; you should see us right about now."

The girl walked away giving him a strange look (Mike imagined he looked pretty zoned out). Nolan came down the stairs with a young man who was obviously intoxicated, a large man in bright clothing, and a thin woman.

"Steve, this is my friend Mike. And Mike, this is Steve, Nick, and Lisa."

"Oooh, this is my song! I love Tori Amos," Nick said.

"Let's cut the mystery;" Mike said over the mindlink, "These fuckers are tainted. My nosehairs are burning."

"I'm getting kinda tired," Steve said, "Nick where'd you say your place was?"

"Uh, Steve, maybe you should come back with me tonight," Nolan said.

"I'll be okay," he insisited.

"Steve-"

"Oh come on," Lisa said, "They really hit it off in here. I can give you my phone number so you can check up on us if you want."

Mike leaned in close to Lisa and said, "Listen, bitch, I know what you are and I know why you're here. You have ten seconds to beat it before things get ugly."

Lisa's face wrinkled in anger. Threw her drink in Mike' face and stomped off. Nick hurried after her.

"What the fuck did you say to her!" Steve demanded.

"Steve you're drunk," Nolan said, "Now sit your ass down! I have to get back upstairs; don't go anywhere till I get off."

Nolan returned to his booth. There was a brief awkward silence between Steve and Mike.

"So I take it you're gonna watch me all night or something.?"

"They put something in your drink, y'know." A half-truth; it seemed more like Nick had some kind of enticing powers.

"Oh fuck. So...how long have you and Nolan been dating?"

"What! We're not...I'm straight!"

"I've heard that before..." Steve passed out.

Am I supposed to be worried, Mike wondered as he lugged Nick over to a booth seat.

The night eventually drew to an end without further incident, and Mike helped Nolan get things into the car.

"Ugh, I feel like throwing up," Steve said.

"Well do it in the car," replied Mike.

"Hey!" Nolan exclaimed. Mike ignored him and helped Steve into the back seat, then paused after shutting the door.

"Nolan, wait," Mike said to him.

"What is it?"

"We're not alone...Behind you!"

"Huh?" Nolan turned around, and was shot in the chest.


	7. C6: Blood on the Dancefloor

The Seppuku Garden  
C6: Blood on the Dancefloor

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

"Ahh! Shit!" Nolan cried as the bullet pierced the right side of his chest.

"You thought you saw the last of us?" Lisa said as she held a pistol. Nick was with her.

"Hey," he said, "Where's the other one?"

Just then, Mike Strides-in-Crimson descended on top of Lisa in Crinos form and clawed at her fiercely.

Nick grew two extra arms and prepared to help his lady friend but was intercepted by Nolan, who was also in Crinos and pissed..

"Get over here!" Vertigo said.

Nick lunged towards him; Nolan used his vertigo-inducing gift on Nick, throwing off the fomor's equilibrium. The fomor missed with his attack and staggered about dizzily. Vertigo slashed at Nick's back but it didn't appear to hurt much. The fomor back-smacked him, which surprisingly sent Nolan back three feet.

Mike was still mauling Lisa and got ready to bite her jugular, when she hurled a clump of goo in his face. She then sprouted a couple bone weapons and stabbed Ice four times before he could react. He finally cleared the goo from his face, but the sudden loss of blood left him feeling faint. Lisa was ready to slit his throat, but heard gunshots fired. This shook Mike awake a bit, and he noticed it was the redhead from before. She missed with her shot, but had Lisa's gun ready for another.

"Leave him alone!" the redhead ordered.

Lisa sped over, shoved her splint into the girl's shoulder, and took the gun.

"_This_ is how you use a gun," she said, but just then the redhead grew into a Crinos form of her own and punched Lisa clear across the jaw.

Meanwhile, Nick kicked Vertigo in the stomach. Nolan bit down on his vomit. Gaia, this fucker is _strong! _However, Nick was briefly distracted by the new arrival. Vertigo seized the opportunity and bit Nick in the leg. The fomor attempted to kick him again but the werewolf was back on his feet.

Strides-in-Crimson watched the redhead take on Lisa. The two fighters were a blur, but it wouldn't be long until the redhead depleted her Rage. He shrugged off the pain and rejoined the fight. "I'll take you both on!" Lisa said and split her concentration between the two Garou.

"Is that Johnny Depp?" Vertigo pointed away.

"Huh?" Nick actually fell for it; Vertigo bit him on his top right arm and actually tasted blood this time.

"Ow you fucker!" Nick punched him with one of his other arms.

Mike vaguely heard the exchange and an idea popped into his head. He concentrated his Gnosis and hurled a gout of flame at Lisa, igniting her hair and clothes.

"Lisa" Nick exclaimed. He ran over to her and started patting out the flames. They soon went out, but Lisa had stopped moving. He was confused for a second, as he clearly didn't know his own strength..

"She-she's dead! You made me do that!" he yelled.

"Maybe..."

"I'm gonna kill you!" But before he could get the chance, Vertigo dug his claws into Nick's back and ripped out his spinal cord. He fell to the ground and twitched about violently for 30 seconds then lay deathly still. Nolan dropped the bone column and shuddered.

Mike and the redhead shifted to Homid form.

"You're still bleeding," she said, "Take off your shirt and let me see." He complied and she put her hands on the wounds.

"Ow!"

"It's okay, I'm a paramedic," she said. She place her hands an his chest again and focused her spirit magic into the wounds. They soon shrunk into faint scratches.

"Um...thanks, that feel a lot better," Mike said awkwardly.

She smiled at him then turned to Nolan, "What about you?"

"I'm fine, he only punched me a couple times," Nolan replied, "We'll have to dump the bodies in the Umbra."

"We can use the mirror in my compact," the young woman said. She went to retrieve her purse which she sat aside before jumping in the fight.

"I can't believe Steve slept through the whole thing," Nolan noticed, "Oh, and thanks for your help Miss...?"

"Swallowtail," she replied, "Or 'Ryn' if you prefer. I'm a Galliard for the Children of Gaia. I sort of met your friend here at the bar."

Proper introductions were made, then Mike asked, "Did you just happen to be here?"

"Well not really. Like I said, I'm a paramedic and I've noticed a trend of Wyrm-tainted deaths across town. So, I used what connections I had and found out something was supposed to be going down over here tonight. Figured I'd pay a visit."

"And we're glad you did," Nolan said as he scooped up Lisa's body. Mike took Nick's (and his spine). Ryn focused her power through her mirror and brought the two young men with her into the Umbra, where they unceremoniously dumped off the two bodies.

Ryn sighed, "I never liked the darker side of this business." A sparkling butterfly flew around her. "Misty!" Ryn greeted, "There you are! Hey, this is Nolan 'Vertigo' and Mike Strides-in-Crimson. You were right about the second one. Guys, this is my familiar spirit, Misty. She lets me see in two places at once."

"There's someone here who wants to talk to you," Misty said to Ryn.

"Huh?" she replied.

An unseen voice said, "Well, I want to talk to all three of you. You guys did good tonight." Out from the shadows stepped a wiry young man. He was about 5'6, with a narrow waist and shoulders, and was quite attractive. He swayed his hips as he walked over and examined the two corpses.

"They weren't alone in this, y'know," he said, "There are others who are gonna be pissed."

"What do you know about all this?" Ryn asked.

"Well, I knew they'd come here tonight too, pushing their product, which is why I warned you guys.".

Nolan walked over to the boy. "You mean it was YOU who broke into the caern!" he said as he tried to grab the kid by the neck, but his hand passed harmlessly through. The boy smirked.

"Calm down, I'm trying to help; I only aimed for big guy's neck because I knew it'd get attention."

"And why should we not make you regret it?" Mike asked angrily.

"You could kill me now if you really wanted to, but I do have friends who'll know what's up if I don't do lunch with them tomorrow."

Ryn stepped in between them, "Let's not sit here and make threats all night. Now what do you know about what's going on and why should we trust you?"

The boy appeared zoned out for a second, then turned to Nolan and said, "Your friend's starting to stir in he car; it's gonna be awkward if he wakes up and you're nowhere around. And cops are gonna be out ticketing any moment. But back to your question, Ryn, it's on you guys if you want to trust me or not. This isn't the time or place though. Meet me at Edgewater Park tomorrow, 6 o'clock, on the breakwall. Name's Joss by the way..." With that, he vanished into the shadows as strangely as he appeared.

The three Garou stepped back into the physical plane.

"What the hell was that about?" Nolan asked..

"I don't know," Mike replied, "He sort of smelled like a werewolf but something was distinctly different; something I never smelled before. There was also a slight touch of the Wyrm on him."

"That could mean anything in these parts," Ryn replied.

"I don't trust him," Mike said flat-out.

"He's still our only lead so far on this. We should see what he knows. But before anything we need to touch base with Amerie first. Ryn, again thanks for everything."

"It was nothing, really."

Nolan gave her a business card for the Recycling Center. "Come on through around 5 or so if you want to help, 'cause we could use some right about now."

"Thanks, I'll do that. In the meantime, you boys have a good night," she crossed the street to catch a bus. Mike followed Nolan to his car.

"We shouldn't be trusting all these people," Mike said.

"Like I said, we really have to follow what leads we have. If they turn out to be traps, that's what shifting into a nine-foot beast comes in handy. As for Swallowtail, we can use a little extra muscle.

Mike rolled his eyes, "She's a Child of Gaia, they're hardly fighters."

"She did well enough tonight, let's just see how things go for now. Oh, and where am I dropping you off?"


	8. C7: The Broken Circle

The Seppuku Garden  
C7: The Broken Circle

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Ryn enjoyed spending nice afternoons off playing her guitar at Public Square. She did it not for the money people left in her case (which she always gave away), but to help lighten everyone's mood. She'd been in Cleveland for three months now and everyone here seemed so…depressed. Sure it wasn't the most glamorous city in the world but it had a certain charm about it. Ever since accepting the EMT job, she promised her old sept back in West Virginia that she'd get in contact with the local Garou, but hadn't done so until last night. What the hell are they up against, though? Either way, she knew she had to help.

Her train of thought was broken by a comotion across the street. Two teenage boys were screaming at each other. She hurried over just as the first punch was swung. As the crowd of onlookers cheered the fighters on, Ryn gave a silent mental command to the spirit insider her guitar and started playing a cheery tune. One by one, the onlookers turned their attention away from the fight to her. Eventually, even the two combatants stopped fighting to hear this hippie chick's song. Everyone bobbed their heads to the rhythm. One boy even started banging on the top cover of a trash can to add a beat. A couple other guys reinforced it.

Ryn was not at all offended as it reminded her of the drum circles back home. She let her rhythm meld with theirs. Another kid, one of the fighters, broke out into a freestyle rap. Various passers-by would stop to listen. Ryn noticed a tall pale man standing apart from them by a Do Not Enter sign. He was wearing a black trenchcoat despite the fairly warm weather. His face wore no exression. Ryn continued playing for awhile, but out of the corner of her eye she saw him doing some strange motion with his hands. If he's trying to dance, she thought, he's not exactly-

"OW" Ryn cried in pain and dropped her guitar. It cracked upon hitting the concrete.

"You okay?" one of the kids asked. The others stopped playing to see what was wrong.

"I don't know, I must have cut myself…" her fingers were slashed open. From the strings, though? "My guitar!" Ryn noticed. She bent over to pick it up and the strings were turned into barbed wire! While she was bent over, a passing driver was checking her out while turning, and his car veered over and ran into the side of one in the other lane. The sounds of crashing metal and a horn followed. The woman in the other car got out and was furious.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" she yelled.

"You hit me!" he replied, even though he knew she didn't.

"No I didn't, you were busy looking at that white girl, asshole!"

"Fuck you you stupid bitch!"

"What'chu call me!"

She angrily slapped him. He got mad and hit her back.

"Hey man!" one of the teens yelled, "That's a female!" he got in the driver's face and they got into an altercation. All of this soon attracted attention from police. The defiant boy said "Fuck you!" to the cop and all hell broke loose after that.

Ryn slipped away to an unseen alley and shifted to Glabro form to heal her hands. She was more than a little upset, since this was the exact opposite of what she intended. That, and her guitar fetish was now ruined. The pale man was nowhere to be seen, but a black spider web had been spray-painted on the Do Not Enter sign he was standing near. What the hell is going on?

It was a little after five when Ryn's bus took her to the recycling center. She hoped they wouldn't mind a little lateness. A girl with a buzz-cut and a boy in a Mushroomhead tshirt were standing by the entrance. They stopped her.

"Who are you here to see?" the girl asked.

"Oh, my name's Erin Summers, I'm here to see a…Nolan and Mike. Sorry I'm late," she whispered that last sentence in Garou to get her point across. The two exchanged glances.

"I'll take you in," the young man said.

The tight security was understandable if this were a caern, but Ryn had a feeling it was typically not quite like this. They came to a door marked "Conference Room" and Ryn could hear Mike' voice through the walls. He sounded angry about something, but she couldn't make out what. A female voice replied.

"I came back here 'cause I thought I could trust y'all," she said, "You won't trust Juanita but you'll roll with two motherfuckers you just met last night!" she sounded vaguely familiar. The young man knocked on the door. The talking stopped.

"That should be her," Ryn heard Nolan say. He opened the door.

"Um…hey," Ryn wasn't quite sure what to say at a time like this.

"Come in," Nolan replied. He turned to the young man, "Thanks."

"Sure," the boy said and walked off. Nolan closed the door.

The black girl instantly recognized her, "Erin?"

"Amerie?" Ryn remembered, the girl who survived that explosion two weeks ago.

"You probably didn't recognize me at first," Amerie said with a laugh.

"You two know each other?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, she's the paramedic."

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Ryn asked.

"Not at all," Amerie replied. She motioned to a brown-skinned girl in the corner, staring with suspicious eyes. "This is Juanita, she knows a bit about what's going on."

"She's a werespider!" Mike blurted.

"Oh cool!" Ryn went up to shake her hand.

"Cool! She could be one of them!"

"Oh Mike shut up," Amerie said, "There are Spiral Dancers involved too; are we all with them? You sound a little…racist if you ask me."

This left Mike at a loss for words.

"Is it common for werespiders to leave grafitti spiderwebs wherever they create chaos?" Ryn asked, half jokingly.

"What do you mean?" Juanita asked.

"This," Ryn showed everyone her hexed guitar, then told the story of what happened to her earlier.

"It was Dmitri," Juanita said, "I knew he wouldn't except what happened last night.

"Then we find him and kill him," Nolan said.

"Easier said than done," replied Juanita, "We couldn't find him and he was right down the street from us."

"Maybe we can start by seeing what this Joss kid knows." Nolan finished his cigarette. "We should probably head out now. Amerie, your car's bigger; would you mind driving?"


	9. C8: Slylocked

The Seppuku Garden  
C8: Slylocked

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

The ride to Edgewater Park wasn't geographically long, but the thick silence in the car made it seem to go forever. No one was quite sure what to say to each other. Nolan and Ryn were curious about Juanita but didn't want to ask too many questions. Mike didn't trust the werespider at all (Do they really drink blood?) and grew suspicious of the others for being so accepting of a possible Wyrm creature. Amerie eventually got to the beach and found a parking space.

"Wow, Lake Erie's really beautiful up close," Ryn said after getting out of the car.

"Girl please," Amerie replied, "That water's so nasty it can be cut into blocks. You see that huge pipe in the distance across from where those people are swimming? Raw sewage can flow from it into the lake at any moment.

(Author's note: I'm not making this up.)

"Um…ew!"

"Right. Learn how to Resist Toxins before you actually go swimming. Those are some damn fools out there."

"The kid said to meet us on the breakwall," Mike said.

"Are those the rocks over there?" Ryn asked.

"Yeah, they keep the waves from hitting the shore," Nolan said as he lit a cigarette, "They're pretty cool to walk on, and I guess we'll see him there so keep your eyes open."

They walked along the breakwall for a ways. Mike and Juanita gave each other the occasional evil eye. Amerie complained about having worn heals. Nolan described Joss as thin and rather short, coming up to his chin height-wise, but would be attractive if he didn't look sixteen.

"I'm nineteen!" a voice suddenly replied.

"You!" Nolan said.

"How long were you following us?" Mike asked.

"Maybe ten minutes or so," replied Joss, "Just getting a good feel for you all." He nodded at Amerie and Juanita, "And you ladies are…?"

"Tired of these games," Juanita stated, "Who are you and what do you know about this?"

Ryn agreed, "Considering what's at stake, we should build some mutual trust."

Joss shrugged, "Fair enough, I guess. I was sent to follow you, to see what you all knew about what was going on around here." Joss disappeared, then reappeared next to Nolan and started checking the Glass Walker out, "I know a few esoteric Gifts, and some other things you might not want me to get into."

"What tribe are you?" Amerie asked.

"No tribe. I'm Kitsune, werefox. We don't do tribes."

"Huh,' Nolan said, not expecting that answer.

Mike had enough. He studied Joss for a second, then reached over to his left (having seen through the illusion) and picked the boy up by the front of his shirt and held him over the edge of the breakwall. "Bullshit! There's no such thing as werefoxes!"

"There are," Ryn corrected, "but they're rarely seen outside of Asia. And you're white," she said to Joss.

"My grandmother's Chinese Kin, now put me down!"

A woman approached from behind and said, "You'd do well to listen to him."

The urban Garou recognized her immediately. "Carmen," Amerie said.

Nolan added, "The plot thins…"


	10. C9: The Queen's Men

The Seppuku Garden  
C9: The Queen's Men

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

"Who the hell are you!" Mike demanded.

"If you don't know, you better ask somebody," Carmen replied.

Amerie explained, "She's the queenpin of vice in Cleveland, and a powerful mage."

A beautiful and shrewd black businesswoman, Carmen united the gangs and families in Cleveland under her rule, whether they liked it or not. Some magick here and there helped, and even the Kindred Prince wouldn't openly act against her. "And I won't tell you again to put him down...on land!"

"Why, will you make my blood boil if I don't?" Mike taunted.

"No, I…" she sucked her teeth in disgust, "Now that's just barbaric. Think snipers instead. Armed with silver bullets."

The shifters looked around.

"The magick is in hiding them from sight, and giving them the word to shoot. Now put. Him. Down."

Mike threw Joss on the grass, next to Carmen. The young werefox growled and looked ready for a fight.

"Be nice!" Carmen ordered, "You two can get a room if you wanna see who's dick is bigger."

"Damnit I'm straight!" Mike said.

"Yeah, right. And was all this really necessary? We're on the same side for once. Or is it just your M.O. to kill everything you don't understand?"

"Okay we got off on the wrong foot," Nolan said, "What's going on?"

"I just figured we'd put our heads together to fight a mutual enemy and..." she glanced at Juanita and her voice trailed.

"What?" the girl asked.

"Um, we need to talk somewhere private. But we don't need to be followed. Joss, can you get us out of here?"

"I can try. I never 'ported so many people before."

"I can give your hedge magic a boost, let's just go."

"Okay, but let's get over on the rocks."

"What's going on?"

"It'll make sense in a minute, just, everyone stand close together," Joss said as he pulled a small glass vial out of his pocket. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a minute, then shattered the vial against the stone. A cloud of blue smoke rose, enveloping the seven of them. The shifters felt a quick disorientation and sudden change in air pressure. When the smoke cleared, they found themselves inside an elegant office.

"What kind of sorcery-" Mike started.

"The kind they don't teach in werewolf school," Joss replied, "I might have saved our lives."

Amerie looked around, "We're in Pharaoh, aren't we?"

"You're smarter than you look," Carmen said as she sat down at her mahogany desk. Pharaoh Niteclub served as both a caern for her (or "node," as mages call them) and money-laundromat. "But you," she said to Juanita, "What's your name?"

"Why?"

"Your aura's familiar.

"To what?"

"I'll get back to that. But you all probably want to know what I meant by 'mutual enemy.' Yes, I sent Joss here to spy on you, and it seems that the same freaks who killed your pack, Amerie (I've done my homework) are the ones who've been giving me a hard time as of late."

"Who's been giving you a hard time?" Nolan wondered.

"Well for starters, I've got a couple mages I'm tutoring here, and Brujah vampires make the best bouncers. But most of my people-the hookers, dancers, dealers, and streetsweepers-are old-fashioned humans. Well, I had to get in a few asses when some of my workers started getting high on the job, then not showing up at all. Now, I've nothing against using drugs for some kind of enlightenment, but weed only makes you stupid and lazy. Do it on your own time.

"About a week ago, I had a vision that I would be killed here. That night, the club was in full swing, and Latoya, one of my disappearing workers, comes in. I saw her from the security cams. Even if I couldn't sense some kind of malignant force inside her, something seemed…off.

"I told my bouncers to get rid of her immediately. Okay, this is gonna get nasty, I'm warning you now," Carmen sighed, then continued, "They took her, and this bitch goes bizerk. Scratching, kicking, spitting, snd-I shit you not-bit one of them with her left breast."

"What!" Nolan asked.

"Her halter top was torn off and her left breast had teeth and a mouth! Tore his hand clean off. The other guard tried to stun her and she spat acid in his face. Finally, my Brujah bouncer seized her and threw her outside; then a bomb somewhere on her (I don't wanna know where) exploded, taking him with her. Thankfully, no one else was hurt. Feds closed the club for awhile, not to mention the Camarilla weren't too thrilled over this."

"Sounds like the fomori we've been dealing with," Ryn said.

"Fomori? Joss was saying they're called 'bakemono' in the East. Tomayto/tomahto I guess."

"They've been popping up left and right," Amerie said, "But where are they coming from?"

"Well," Camren said, "This next part's gonna kill you. I met with one of my pushers a couple days ago, and his aura wa all wrong. He wasn't even possessed; it felt like someone was literally wearing his skin. He attacked me and that's when I shot his ass. Then he broke into a thousand little spiders and ran off."

Juanita looked up at the mention of this. Carmen continued, "You have an aura just like his. Well, almost. His was more…entropic, but still 'smelled' like a shapeshifter. Joss said he's a Kumo."

"Not quite, but he does serve the Wyrm," Juanita expained. " But none of the Wyrm-serving Ananasi worked for you in the past, though. What I think he did, was turn into a bunch of spiders and eat your thug from the inside, then took over his body and memories."

"That's just creepy," Carmen said.

"And you don't all serve the Wyrm!" Mike said.

"Piss off," Juanita replied, "I'd never do that myself."

"Now wait a minute," said Amerie, "This is starting to make sense. A Wyrm-serving werespider killed and replaced a pusher working for Carmen. Then her workers stopped showing up because they were getting high-"

Nolan finished, "-And now the city's overrun with fomori!"

"Wait a sec," Carmen stepped in, "Y'all mean to tell me someone's lacing weed with Banes?"

"That sounds so crazy it has to be true," Ryn said.

"But," Carmen seemed lost for words, "You Animal Planet types don't have the power to do that on such a larg scale. It would take a mage to-"

"Well…" Juanita started.

Mike couldn't believe this, "Don't tell me you spiders can alter the Pattern Web."

"Okay, I won't."

Carmen suddenly gasped out loud and said, "Everybody down! NOW!"

A powerful blast shook the building's foundations, and the world blew up in their faces.


	11. C10: The Darkest Rooks

The Seppuku Garden  
C10: The Darkest Rooks

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Mike sprung to Crinos form to protect Amerie and Ryn from debris. Juanita turned into a horde of spiders and…disappeared. Joss and Carmen went behind her desk for cover. Nolan was knocked unconscious by flying rubble.

The Ananasi Erica laughed as she entered the smoky building. She knew Carmen would return with the shifters eventually. The security guards were easy pickings and decent meals. Then she, her Black Spiral Dancer cohort, and three fomori fired the rocket launcher in due time. Now she simply had to wait for them to come from around the corner in a blind fury so she could pick them off with her machine gun (loaded with silver bullets).

"Fat chance, bitch!" Juanita hissed as she leapt from the Umbra in her Lillian war form. She knocked the gun out of Erica's hand, and slashed her in the face. The fomori went to subdue Juanita, but she entangled them in webbing.

"You cunt!" Erica spat as she shifted to Lillian herself.

"Bring it!"

"Do you hear that?" Amerie asked, "That's Juanita!" Amerie got up to join the fray in Crinos form, tossing rubble out of her like so much paper. Mike followed.

Ryn went over to Nolan's unconscious body and pushed the rubble and whatnot off of him. His face was bloody and breathing shallow. She attempted her gift of Mother's Touch, but with minimal success.

"Carmen! You have to help him!"

"I'm no healer, girl!" she replied, "But I got a trick for these assholes," she said as she reached into her purse.

Meanwhile, Amerie ran to what remained of the bar and found three fomori biting and clawing their way out of a mess of webbing. Juanita was being double-teamed by an Ananasi and a Spiral Dancer. Amerie drew her klaive and went for the depraved werewolf. This left Mike with two werespiders going at it. He didn't know which was which, and tackled the uglier of the two…and wrestled Juanita to the ground.

"Fight the bad guys you idiot!" she shouted.

Amerie was momentarily distracted, and the Spiral Dancer smacked the klaive out of her hand. The three fomori broke free from the webbing.

"Kill the others!" Erica ordered.

Making their way through the ruin and collapsed sections of floor was difficult but not impossible for the three once-humans; they found Carmen's office soon enough. Joss was the first to notice them.

"We got company!" he said.

"Y'all buy me some time," Carmen replied.

Joss shifted to his own Crinos form. He didn't get any bigger, but had a sleek black coat with two bushy white-tipped tails. He pulled out two ribbons of paper with Mandarin writing down the side and assumed a fighting pose.

"This fool's 'bout to fight us with toilet paper!" a fomor said. They laughed. Joss smirked as he hurled the two ribbons at them. They flew straight for the monsters and engulfed them in balls of white flame. The leftmost fomor screamed in agony as he burned to death; the middle one barely survived. The third made a dash toward Ryn and Nolan.

"Stay away from him!" Ryn shrieked as she sprang up into Crinos form and dug her claws into the creature.

"Damn!" Carmen said, surprised at the girl's ferocity. The mage had been digging in her purse for her enchanted MP3 player. Thankfully, it wasn't damaged. She pluged it into a small speaker and put the volume on full blast, then picked a good song and meditated on the rhythm.

Unbeknownst to them, a mass of spiders appeared over Nolan, covering him. They examined his body. He'll be perfect, their hive-mind thought. They spirited him away as quickly and mysteriously as they came.

The fomor fighting Joss spat a gout of acid at him. He screamed in pain as it hit his bared arm, then angrily slashed the fomor's throat, killing him. Joss looked to Carmen, who nodded and pointed at Ryn Swallowtail and her three-mouthed sparring partner. Carmen did a strange hand motion as Ryn began her next attack. She went in deep with her talons into the creature's side and-thank's to Carmen's magick-tore out his entire ribcage. The stream of gore that followed wasn't pretty.

Joss felt nauseated. Carmen strided over to the main room. Ryn went for Nolan.

"Where is he?" she growled as she rummaged through the mess.

"Maybe he came around and got the hell outta here," Joss suggested. "If Carmen's gonna do what I think, maybe we should too."

Carmen went up to the main hall where the fight was raging still. She pointed at the Spiral Dancer fighting Amerie, and a section of ceiling fell down on top of him. A hand left uncovered turned human. She did the same to Erica; the ground even gave from beneath her. The others could feel the building sway.

"Closing time, people," Carmen said, "We ain't gotta go home but we gotta get the fuck outta here!"

The four of them quickly left but…

"Nolan, Ryn, and Joss are still inside!" Amerie exclaimed. The building toppled.

"Shit!" Mike yelled.

"I can hear the sirens, we gotta get outta here now!" Carmen said.


	12. C11: On the Move

The Seppuku Garden  
C11: On the Move

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

The four supernaturals made their way to Carmen's safehouse in Midtown, along the way she had used mind-magick to make them effectively invisible. "We can lay low here for the night," Carmen said as she flipped a light on and sighed, "Y'all hungry?"

"No thanks…Mike?" Amerie said. Michael had crawled in a corner and was cutting his wrist, watching it heal, and cutting again ad infinitum. He didn't reply when Amerie called his name.

Carmen came back out with a flask of London Dry for herself, "Mike, what the hell are you doing to yourself?" he didn't answer.

"That boy's gone," Juanita said, "What the fuck is wrong with him?"

"If he goes psycho, you better have that bowie knife ready," Carmen said.

"Don't say that!" Amerie said, "He's a metis, I think."

"A what?" Carmen asked.

"A metis. Y'see, two werewolves aren't supposed to get freaky, at least not opposite sexes. 'Cause if the girl gets pregnant, the baby will be deformed and sterile from inbreeding, not to mention born in Crinos form and stuck that way till puberty."

"What do they do till then? Keep him in an attic?"

"Well…yeah. What's really fucked up is that Mike's a Fianna. They treat their metis like shit and he probably heard that he's an accident everyday of his life."

"Why? It ain't his fault his parents couldn't keep their pants on."

"Some folks need a scapegoat to cover their own fuck-ups. The more liberal tribes like the Uktena treat their metis better though. If Mike did something about his attitude, he could stay up here after this whole mess is over. Or even Nolan's Glass Walker sept. At the very least, we'd only care about who he is, not what he is and would give him a chance to be something."

"Right," Juanita said, "Now what are we gonna about making this mess 'over?'"

Carmen thought for a second, "I hate hiding like some damn 19-year-old bankrobber. And then I had to bring down my own fucking club! This nonsense ends. Soon. I'm gonna call my people we're gonna put an end to this."

"No arguments here," Amerie said.

That's when a sparkling butterfly appeared in the middle of the room.

"What the hell is that?" Carmen asked.

"It's a spirit," Juanita said. The butterfly flew over to Mike and called his name. The young man continued to obliviously cut himself. The spirit turned to the ladies.

"Um, hi. My name's Misty and I'm Ryn's familiar spirit. Just wanted to let you know that she and Joss are okay."

"What about Nolan?" Amerie asked.

"He was taken by a werespider; I saw it myself!"

Mike suddenly got up. All eyes were on him and a little bewildered. "Something's not right. They would have just killed him…" He got up and headed for the door.

"Mike where are you-" Amerie started, but he left without listening. And when the ladies looked out the window, they saw a wolf taking off.

"That was interesting," Carmen said.

Amerie swore under her breath then said to the spirit, "Um, go tell them to come up here tomorrow so we can figure out what's going on."

"The real game begins," Misty said as she vanished into the Umbra.

SOME TIME EARLIER…

Ryn could feel the building swaying. She knew they only had seconds to get out, "…But where the hell is my purse! My compact is in there!"

"Forget that!" Joss said.

"Do you have another smoke vial?"

"There's no time, come on!" Joss grabbed her hand and to her surprise, managed to reach sideways without the use of a mirror. The club's Umbral reflection still stood strong, and had an array of bright colors flashing about, some never seen on the normal spectrum. Then the whole place shook violently and everything went deathly black.

"Without a physical reflection, this node is gonna fade away if Carmen doesn't have it rebuilt."

"How'd you step sideways without a mirror?"

"My secret."

Misty suddenly appeared, "Ryn! Thank Gaia you're all right!"

"You too. See anything from this side?"

"Yeah, this tall pale guy was carrying Nolan someplace. I didn't know what was going on at first, though."

"We should go find Carmen and the others," Joss suggested.

"Too risky," Ryn replied, "We don't need to be all together again in case those bastards want to go for round two. We can recoup at my place in the meantime so that I can take a look at your arm. If we go there through the Umbra, it can be a little extra cover. Misty, find the others and tell them we're okay."

"Wait, Joss said, "It's gonna take us all night to get anywhere through here; it's not like we can just hop on the some spirit RTA. Unless you want to go on all fours or something."

"Not necessarily. Grab onto me."

"Um, okay…" Joss complied and to his own shock, Ryn took to the air. "How the fuck did you learn to fly!"

"You're not the only one with secrets."


	13. C12: Web of Silver

The Seppuku Garden  
C12: Webs of Silver

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Nolan slowly woke up, but couldn't shake the haze clouding his mind, nor could he move at all. He was suspended naked in midair in a pitch black room. Kinky, he thought. He knew how to shift his sight to infrared, but trying gave him a headache. He couldn't even muster the will to frenzy. He had lost every ounce of the Wolf in him, but for how long?

A door opened and a light clicked on; Nolan winced as it stung his eyes. A tall, pale man walked in and smiled. "Sleeping beauty awakens," he said.

Once his eyes settled, Nolan looked around. He was in a nondescript gray room. A desk sat in the corner next to a blackened grid window. Most disturbing, however, was that he was bound to a giant spider web. "Dmitri Stone, I take it," he said to the man.

"Huh. I should have known Juanita would run her mouth. She will be punished for that."

"You don't own her."

"No, but we Ananasi don't tell others our business, nor can we sit idly by while one of ours is attacked by an outsider."

"So why did you involve outsiders?" Nolan sneered, "You bastards killed Amerie's pack."

"Different agendas crossed," Dmitri said. The door opened again, and he didn't turn around as four others entered the room. One of them, a girl, had runes carved on her bare arms was wearing a wooden necklace. He recognized the glyph on it: she was a Black Spiral Dancer.

"What, are Wyrm-trash coming together in peace and harmony?" Nolan quipped.

"It's just that we realized that we can accomplish more if we work together," said one of the goons, "And thankfully, you Gaians are too stubborn to realize that."

Dmitri turned to Rune-girl and asked, "How's Erica and Ab…" he stammered for a second.

Rune-girl rolled her eyes, "It's Absadgfuhwau," she corrected (probably not for the first time).

"Whatever. How are they?"

"Absadgfuhwau's feeling a little better, but I told him to rest for the night. Erica's doing okay too."

"So it's all coming together," Nolan said, "You Spiral Dancers bind Bane spirits into marijuana, and then you Wyrm-serving Ananasi took over the bodies of the biggest druglords in town and pushed the product throughout Cleveland."

Dmitri smiled, "Our army is in the dozens and growing bigger everyday. And you black kids are the best tools for this."

"Excuse me?"

"The way you all focus so heavily on the despair in your lives makes possession that much easier. You'd try any variation of weed. Hell, we could flat out tell you there are daemonic spirits inside and you'd be that much more willing to smoke it."

Nolan could not believe the nerve of this asshole. All he wanted to do was rip Dmitri's throat out.

"Forget it," the sinister werespider said, having read his thoughts, "That web is interlaced with silver. If you try to shift out of it, the results would be…unpleasant. But go ahead if you want, your blood won't go to waste."

"If you're in the mood to suck on something..."

"Oh my, would you kiss your mother with that mouth? I think you need to know who your betters are."

"Fuck you!" Nolan spat at Dmitri. The Ananasi wasn't fazed, however, and simply waived his hand in a circular motion. Then Nolan felt the metal in the web getting warmer, then searing hot. Nolan screamed in agony and shifted to Crinos form in a blind rage…tearing off the skin on his back in the process. Nolan collapsed, and the Wyrm-servers all laughed heartily at the whole show, especially since it was a Glass Walker Gift used.

"Is he dead?" one of the werespiders asked.

"Not quite," Dmitri replied, "But I think he realizes how hopeless his situation is." He kicked Nolan to turn him on his back, and the young werewolf writhed in pain as his raw back came in contact with the filthy floor. "In case you're curious, by the way, your friends managed to escape. But you're gonna help us find them."

"I'll die before I walk the Black Spiral," Nolan weakly muttered.

"Oh there's another way," Dmitri pulled out a large syringe. "The baneweed normally doesn't work on supernaturals, to our chagrin, but a pure extract is another story."

Nolan was powerless to stop Dmitri from sticking the dirty needle into his arm. A few seconds later, he found himself in the same frozen sleep state as in the bathtub two days earlier. The water came up, the darkness came down; only this time, there wasn't a blessed thing he could do to stop it.


	14. C13: Unthinkable

The Seppuku Garden  
C13: Unthinkable

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Nolan woke up in a rough vacant field. It was still dark out, and there was no street in his immediate view. His clothes-and skin-were on his back again, however. He checked his watch: 3:53. Was it still the same night? He felt like complete and utter crap; what did those bastards do? He was still a little light-headed and had a horrible hunger and thirst, like cottonmouth from hell, he thought as he let out a hacking cough. He seemed otherwise all right and saw train tracks to his right.

He could make out an RTA Rapid Transit station a ways in the distance. He walked over to it and was relieved to see that it was the station at West Boulevard and Detroit Avenue. His apartment was only twenty-odd blocks away. While at the station, he bought a pop at a vending machine (surprised that he still had money), and boarded the 326 bus when it came. Only a few people were on at this hour, and they gave Nolan strange looks. Gaia, he thought, he had no idea what he actually looked like.

Nolan went to the back of the bus, where there were two angry-looking teenagers. One was nursing a busted lip. When he wiped a bit of blood away, Nolan noticed and felt an unknown desire rise in him.

"The fuck you looking at, nigga?" the boy asked.

Meanwhile, Nolan's roommate Steve turned on his side and smiled at his new boytoy, Jason.

"Still up?" Steve asked.

"You seem to be," Jason replied.

"Kinda hungry, actually, how about you?"

Jason shrugged, "Okay."

"Let's throw something on, though, I don't know when Nolan's coming in tonight."

They vaguely threw on some clothes and went to the kitchen.

"Hmm, it's not like Nolan to be out this late," Steve said, "He typically doesn't spin on Sundays."

"He's a big girl, I'm sure he's okay."

"I don't know. It's like, I've known him for six years now and ever since we moved in together, I started noticing things. Like, every so often he'd come in late at night, cut and bruised to all shit. Like he's fighting in a gang or something. I try not to pry in his business, but I've caught him in a couple lies. Like, how the hell do you slip on an ice patch and get a giant gash across your chest? Or guest-DJ at a nightclub that's been closed for months?"

"Who was that guy who came here looking for him a couple hours ago? Mike? Now he was fucking creepy," Jason said with a shudder.

"Yeah really; something about him…I don't know, makes me on edge." They both heard the door click. "That should be Nolan now…" Steve went over to the living room, "Nolan? What the hell happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You look like crap!"

Nolan looked over to the mirror and realized that his clothes were a mess, his eyes red, and his hair had bits of grass in it. This only distracted him for the moment, however. He made a dash for the kitchen and chowed down on leftover chicken from a couple days ago.

"Um…hi, I'm Jason," Steve's boyfriend greeted, a little perplexed.

"Jason, could you give us a second? Nolan, we gotta talk. Mike was over here looking for you, and he looked just as bad as you did. What the hell is going on with you two?"

Nolan was ignoring him and drinking an unsatisfying glass of orange juice.

"Nolan, I'm serious!" Steve tried to take the glass, but Nolan clutched it until it shattered, leaving splints of glass in his hand.

"Ow! Damn!" Nolan cried out.

"Shit, I'm so sorry! Hold still, I'll go get some band-aids," Steve said as he ran off to the bathroom. Nolan picked the glass out of his hand and sucked down on the wounds. However, the taste of his own flesh and blood seemed almost…ecstatic. Was this what he was hungering for? He sucked harder, but it was not helping, like sating one's thirst with one's own blood. The frustration was maddening.

Steve eventually came back with a box of band-aids. "Let me see it," he said. But as soon as Steve's hand came in contact with Nolan's, Nolan grabbed it and bit down, hard. He tasted blood and pulled away a small bit of skin. From that point, he lost all thought. Without listening to Steve's angry confusion, Nolan flung himself onto Steve again in Glabro form and sunk his teeth into him a second time.

"What the fuck!" Jason came out of the bedroom and saw the commotion, and Steve clearly losing. He grabbed a pot and hit Nolan over the head with it. When Nolan looked up, Jason hit him again, and a third time, busting Nolan's lip. This infuriated him, and he shifted to Crinos form…

…Which was quite different than before. Indeed, the werewolf now sported sickly green fur, a third arm coming out of his left thigh, and a second mouth on his right shoulder. Jason froze in fear. Nolan smashed his skull against the refrigerator with one hand, ripped out his liver with another, than devoured it in one bite. Steve took off screaming. He didn't get far before Nolan pounced on him and prepared to bite again. Just then, Michael Strides-in-Crimson leapt through the living room window in Crinos form.

"I knew one of you would show up here!" Mike said angrily.

Vertigo picked Steve up and used him as a shield. The young man was clearly frozen in horror.

"Put him down you bastard! What did he…" Mike's voice trailed off once he got a good look at the werewolf-fomor, "Vertigo! No…"

The once-Garou got ready to sink his fangs in Steve's neck, when Mike shot him in the face with a gout of flame. The creature howled in pain and the smell of burning flesh and fur wasn't pleasant. Mike then tackled Vertigo to the ground and they tussled for a bit. That's when the door was kicked open.

Bruce, a much older neighbor, burst in with a shotgun, but was quite unprepared for what he saw. Nonetheless, he blasted one of the two monsters and they took off running. One went into the bathroom and…disappeared. The other jumped out the back kitchen window and ran off into the night.

This obviously got the other neighbors' attention.

"What the hell was all that?" a woman asked from her door.

"Two big-ass pitbulls!" Bruce replied as he quickly checked on Steve. The young man was still alive, but deep in shock. "Someone call 911!" he ordered, but the police were already well on their way.


	15. C14: The Namebreakers

The Seppuku Garden  
C14: The Namebreakers

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

"…And that's when I stepped sideways through the bathroom mirror," Mike said. A sense of dread washed over the group. The five shifters had met with Carmen's cabal at her safehouse the following afternoon. Among the cabal-besides Carmen-were Otto, a neurotic librarian; Johnny Chang, a sarcastic ascetic; Tars, an East Indian assassin; Sergei, a wealthy tinkerer; Kat, a computer hacker; and Felicity, a white gang girl with a MacBeth motif. A rather motley crew of mages, and everybody present could tell that Carmen's safehouse wasn't quite meant for twelve people sitting around, but they made do with the limited space.

Ryn spoke up, "Is there anything we can do? Y'know, to excorcize the bane or something?"

"Yeah, by killing him," replied Tars, one of the mages, "It's the only way we can set his spirit free."

"We still have to find these bastards," Amerie said.

"Way ahead of you," Kat replied. She pulled out a map of Cleveland and everyone got up to look. A few spots on the map were circled in different colors. She continued, "I cast a little recon spell this morning, showing where all the nodes/caerns in Cleveland are. They glowed on the map, and I circled them in the colors that they came up in so that I'd remember them once the spell faded." The shifters recognized their respective caerns, much to their chagrin.

Amerie also noticed a dark-green circle in the near-west side. "Whats's this?" she asked.

"That's the question," Kat replied, "That one came up as a dark, sickly spiral."

"The Wyrm," Mike said with bile.

"What is the place, though?" one of the mages asked.

"Well, I did some searching online and it seems that there's a warehouse over there, purchased a few months ago by an Edward Rutledge, a high-ranking official at Megadon Pharmaceuticals."

"That's a subsidiary of Pentex, a company literally run by the Wyrm," Mike said.

"Why am I not creeped out?" Carmen asked, "Was there a picture anywhere, by the way?"

"Yeah, right here," Kat pulled out an enlarged driver's license photo of Rutledge.

"That's Dmitri!" Juanita exclaimed. "I knew he had connections to Megadon but I didn't know he worked there!"

"That could be where he's getting the weed from," Amerie said.

Kat spoke up suddenly, "Y'know, we could all just be guinea pigs. Like, maybe they're testing us out and once this proves successful, Pentex would bind spirits into medicine derived from marijuana and they could go anywhere from there."

Everyone exchanged glances as they realized just how dire the situation was. This had to be stopped.

"Y'all carrying?" Carmen asked the shifters, "I've got some hardware in the basement…" they followed her downstairs, except for Juanita, who excused herself to a side room.

She locked the door, then broke down into a thousand tiny spiders and crawled along the Weaver's spiritual webs to the Umbra. There, she assumed the shape of a four-foot spider and performed a dance known only to the Ananasi. Although she didn't see anybody approaching, she could feel herself being watched. The message she was sending across was for the audience to keep its eyes open in the coming events. She hoped not to offend the mages, since she knew how much they-as did Ananasi mystics-hated this little thing called Paradox.

Everyone eventually regrouped. The mage Johnny took point, "We can break off into two groups," he said, "The wolfies here can take on the Spiral Dancers and spiders in the physical world, while the rest of us take on the banes' hold in the Umbra."

"That makes sense," Amerie said, "We attack from both sides and let the whole thing fall on itself. Maybe set off some fireworks in there too.

Carmen replied, "I've got some plastiques in the basement, I'll go get them in a second. Pick a time, let's say 9:20, then set them for 5 minutes and get your furry asses the fuck out of there."

The dirty dozen went over a floor plan of the place that Kat pulled up, then synchronized watches. After wishing each side good luck, the shifters piled into Amerie's car. Bright lights could be seen flashing through the safehouse, then nothing.

"Looks like they stepped sideways somehow," Mike said.

"Otto, that librarian guy, knows how to enter the Umbra," Joss explained.

"Who the hell would think werewolves and mages would ever work together?" Mike wondered.

"It doesn't matter, we all have shit to do so let's do it," Amerie said, "Maybe the five of us should put our differences aside too. I know we didn't get on that great at first, but we're gonna have to act like a pack if we wanna make it out of this alive. They already took one of us down and we have to save his soul if nothing else."

"I know one thing," Juanita said, "I won't die before I take one of them with me. But I want to fucking live through this. They don't deserve to win, not this time."

"That's what the Second Tenet of the Litany says," Mike said, "To fight the Wyrm where it breeds. I'll give my life for any of you if it furthers that cause."

Ryn smiled, "I've partied with some beautiful strangers before, but never quite like this. And I've stuck around for this long I might as well see things through to the end."

Joss stayed silent during the little love-fest, for Carmen had spoken to him earlier that day. She had a premonition that there would be death on both sides in the coming battle. But who?


	16. C15: The Meeting

The Seppuku Garden  
C15: The Meeting

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Amerie parked some ten blocks from the warehouse, then the pack split. Amerie, Mike, and Juanita would find Nolan and hopefully provide a distraction while Joss and Ryn snuck in through the back to plant the bomb. The plastique was magically warded to explode if tampered with in anyway. This didn't bother them, since seppuku seemed to be the flavor of the month.

Joss and Ryn Swallowtail trotted quickly down the street in their canine form (Joss' messenger bag containing the bomb was dedicated, making it a little less awkward to carry as a fox). About three fourths of the way to the warehouse, Joss stopped and shifted back to Homid. Ryn followed suit.

"Grab onto me," he said. She complied, and he concentrated on his crescent-moon fetish that induced invisibility. The effect extended to Ryn as well, as long as she remained in contact with him. A little more hocus-pocus unlocked the back door to the storage room. According to the floor plans, this room would be ideal for growing drugs. It was dimly lit, however, save for flourescent light coming from around the corner. They could also hear what sounded like crying. The duo moved quickly, following the crying and gasped in horror when they found the secret to the Baneweed's cultivation.

Conversely, Mike kicked down the door in Glabro form. "Stay behind me, ladies, in case there's a trap."

Amerie wanted to argue, but knew he would be most likely to make it out if there were some kind of booby trap. The place was dark, almost pitch black. Then the lights suddenly kicked on.

"DMITRI!" Juanita called out. "Where the fuck are you!"

"You needn't look far, turncoat," the Wyrm-tainted werespider replied. He was hanging upside-down from the ceiling, and lowered himself on a line of silk Spider-Man-style.

"Fuck off," Juanita hissed back, "You betrayed the Ananasi way worse than I could have when you blew up our whole colony!"

"I don't even think the Elders are dead. But either way, such is the way of things. Just like the death of Miss Amerie's pack, it's all a part of the Mother-Queen Ananasa's plans."

Amerie grew to Glabro form. "Fuck your goddamned Mother-Queen. This bullshit ends tonight."

Dmitri looked directly at Juanita, "And you'll let her say such things about your patroness?"

"Right now," Juanita said, "I just want to kick your hairy white ass. So where are your cronies at?"

A second Ananasi appeared, "Ask and ye shall receive, blasphemess." He was followed by two Black Spiral Dancers in Crinos.

"That's all?" Juanita taunted.

"Not even, said a hulking, 3-armed, 2-mouthed monstrosity that was once Garou.

"Nolan…" Amerie uttered.

Mike snarled, "That't not Nolan, that's a mockery; a deliberate mockery of what the Garou stand for!"

Dmitri laughed, "I knew you'd like him."

This aroused the Gaian shifters enough, and they charged at their enemies in war form, not caring that they were outnumbered.

"Gaia…" was all Swallowtail could let out as she and Joss watched the hideous act. Two fomori removed a dead body from an operating table and flung it in a corner, where a Spiral Dancer in Hispo form and another fomor started feeding on the corpse.

Three fomori were tending to the canibus plants, which were under the flourescent lights the duo had noticed before. The plants seemed to have a reddish hue to them. One of the green-thumbed mockeries look over to the pair at the operating table, "One more should do," he said. Five horrified hostages were chained and gagged against the wall. The two "operators" grabbed a woman, who screamed as they dragged her to the table and strapped her in.

They crudely stucked two filthy needles into her arms, which began to draw blood through a pair of plastic tubes into a large jug.

"Like some kind of transfusion," Joss noted. The duo moved in closer. Joss studied the plants and was mortified. "Ryn, look! The plants are being grown in the blood!" Swallowtail was furious and started to grow. Before Joss could protest, she let go of him-rendering herself visible-and was in raging Crinos form.

"What the…" one of the operators exclaimed. Ryn slashed him in the face, then threw the other one towards the plants. Joss and the three greenthumbs dodged. The thrown fomor hit the lighting system, which fell on the plants, knocking them over. The splashed blood shorted out the electricity in the lights, electrocuting the fomor.

"Get her!" The Spiral Dancer ordered.

Joss took off his shirt, revealing a dragon tattoo wrapped around his torso. He could feel the invisibility fading. "You sick bastards wanna shed some blood?" he said, then activated the magic in the tattoo. He doubled over in pain as it pulled from his skin and the dragon came to life. It was the size of a large alligator and was itching for a fight. Joss then shifted to Crinos himself. "Come with it!"

Meanwhile, Juanita went to attack Dmitri, but was intercepted by a Spiral Dancer. He slashed at her. She blocked, but the force of it knocked her back. Dmitri laughed as he slunk back into the shadows.

"So where's your girl Erica?" Amerie asked her Ananasi sparring-partner.

"Oh, she in the Umbra with some pattern spiders for backup, since she's got a bone to pick with Carmen. But worry about yourself, Gaia-bitch," he dodged her klaive-swipe and punched her in the stomach with fang-like appendages.

Mike didn't fare much better himsel, being double-teamed by Vertigo and a Spiral Dancer with Runic tattoos. He conjured a flame blast and lit the BSD on fire. But in his distraction, Vertigo jumped him from behind and bit into his neck.

Damn, this ain't going well at all, Amerie thought, as they were all struggling against their combatants. She dodged the Ananasi's next attack and saw that she was fairly close to Juanita. That's when Amerie came up with a gamble…


	17. C16: The Parting

The Seppuku Garden  
C16: The Parting

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Amerie dodged the werespider's next attack, then concentrated on her grandfather's klaive, using her magic to heat the metal in it. She then hurled the flaming dagger at the Black Spiral Dancer Juanita was fighting. Her aim was true, and the went into the twisted werewolf's back. The creature screamed in agony.

"Thanks!" Juanita said as she took the klaive out and slit his throat. His blood looked tasty, but she hadn't the time. She noticed Mike was having a hard time against the two monsters he was fighting, so she went over to even the odds. She used the klaive to slash Vertigo in the arm.

"Arrgh! Little whore!" he looked at her and cast his namesake power.

When the wave of disorientation hit her, Juanita knew attacking would be futile, so she took off running. Vertigo grinned as he ran after her on all fives.

Meanwhile, Swallowtail, Joss, and the dragon-spirit he summoned had taken out three of the six fomori. As Swallowtail slaughtered a fourth, a giant spider jumped on her back. Ryn struggled valiantly, but couldn't shake the creature.

When the dragon-spirit noticed, it went over to help, but a fomor hurled two sharp bone shards at it. The spirit had sustained some damage earlier, and this latest attack severed its hold on the physical world and the spirit faded away. "Damn!" Joss said.

Swallowtail fought the spider in vain, and could feel herself starting to get faint. So, she got brassy and took to the air. She flew straight up and went right through the ceiling. The remaining two fomori turned their attention to Joss. He pulled out a paper talen like the one he used at Carmen's nightclub and hurled it at one of them…it did minimal damage. The mockeries laughed as they double-teamed Joss, but he managed to dodge their attacks.

He pulled a dagger with an S-curve out of his pants, then concentrated on his fetish necklace again. He attuned it rather quickly and would only be invisible for about a minute, but that was all he needed. In the fomori's confusion, Joss came up from behind one and slit his throat.

"What the fuck is this!" the other fomor said, in a state of extreme paranoia. It did him no good, however, since Joss was standing right in front of him. He rammed his dagger straight into the fomor's forehead. The last thing the creature saw was the midnight-black werefox reappear and pull the dagger out.

Joss barely heard the Black Spiral Dancer come up in time. He dodged, but not before the creature gashed Joss in the arm with a hideous knife that looked like a giant tooth. Joss clutched his arm and fell to his knees in horrible pain. Hot tears stuck to his facial fur, as the cut felt like a two dozen bee stings at once.

"Aww, is the little foxy boy crying?" the werewolf taunted, "What the fuck are you, anyway? Some kinda faerie?" the BSD kicked him in the stomach with all of his strength. The force knocked Joss off the ground and against a wall. He fell to the floor; breathing became painful and Joss felt at least three broken ribs. Compounding the issue was that unlike Garou, Kitsune could not regenerate. Nonetheless, Joss picked up his dagger and clambered to his feet, legs quivering. He looked up at the Spiral Dancer for the first time; the creature was literally twice Joss' size.

"Yeah, that's right," the werewolf said, "On your feet, Theurge! You fight like a girl, now die like a man!"

Vertigo followed Juanita to an obscure part of the warehouse. Where the hell is she, he wondered. Just then, he was ensared in a spider-web. Juanita apeared in Pithus (giant spider) form and shot out another stream until he was immobilized. Then she leapt on top of him and started drinking his blood. It tasted vile and his screams were not pretty, but she held on until he finally stopped moving, and Nolan's withered human corpse fell into the mess of webbing. She regretted killing him but it had to be done. Now about Dmitri…

"Ow!" Juanita cried out as she tried to metabolize the blood. She quickly stopped but the pain did not go away, and she cried out again as the pain only got worse. She shifted to Homid form, and there was a black, bloody wound on her abdoman. Her shirt was saturated. She heard laughter, then saw Dmitri Stone form his body from a mass of spiders.

"I knew you'd try that, so I made his blood acidic. The Glass Walker's death means nothing, though. I learned what I needed to, just like your death will be meaningless." Dmitri grabbed the sides of Juanita's face, "Such a shame. You were so beautiful, and such a fast learner for a spider-born Ananasi. Too bad you never learned your place in these matters."

Juanita couldn't speak anymore, but gave one last bloody smile, for physical contact with the target was all she needed to finish the rite she enacted earlier. She died with a look of content on her face, leaving Dmitri a little confused. Okaaaay then, he thought as he examined the klaive she had brought with her. He could leave now, since he had proof that baneweed extract could possess Garou. It was the last thing Pentex was curious about, but they'd still want him to salvage what he could. For the moment, he just waited.

Michael and Amerie started gaining the upper hand in their battle. Mike killed the BSD he was fighting. Amerie was about to move in for her own kill, when the Ananasi spat at her then turned into a mass of small spiders. She watched them crawl up a metal column to the warehouse's rafters.

"You ain't getting away that easy!" she said as she focused the totality of her Gnosis into heating the ceiling itself. She smiled darkly and time seemingly froze as the whole place glowed a dark, hot red light and a flurry of charred spiders fell to the ground like black snowflakes. "I'm gonna go find Juanita," she said to Mike then took off.

Mike went off on his own to find Joss and Ryn. He made his way to the back storage room and saw Joss and a Black Spiral Dancer circling each other in a duel among a half-dozen dead fomori. They both had their daggers at the ready. Mike was a little bewildered since he never saw Joss' Crinos form before; it was tiny! He barely grew an inch and was clearly hurt, shaking and limping along. And where the hell was Ryn? Mike didn't interfere, but stood ready to avenge his…"packmates."

The Spiral Dancer charged at Joss. The werefox held his dagger straight up and…cocked it? The Spiral Dancer appeared shocked as he was suddenly staring down the barrel of a pistol.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click. The monster fell over, dead. Then Joss himself collapsed. Mike quickly ran over to catch him.

"You're hurt," he said, "Where's Ryn, she can heal you."

"No…need," Joss said breathlessly, then licked the gash on his arm. It shrank down to a scratch. "That's a little better."

"What kind of klaive is that?"

"No klaive, just a dagger with a revolver in the-"

A large object came crashing through the ceiling. The two young men jumped back.

"It's the werespider Ryn was fighting," Joss noted. The creature coughed up a gout of blood, then died twitching. Joss looked at his watch. "Okay, it's almost 9:20. See to the hostages and I'll set the bomb."

Mike went to go free them. He soon figured out what they were to be used for. They seemed unhurt but were in a daze. "That door around the corner is unlocked," he said, "And if anyone asks, we're _vampires_. Those bastards who kidnapped you are Sabbat, and we're Camarilla."

"Okay, everything's ready, Mikey. Closing time!"

"What about Amerie? And Juanita?"

"They'll be around, I'm sure. Let's go!"


	18. C17: The Joining

The Seppuku Garden  
C17: The Joining

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

"Juanita!" Amerie exclaimed when she saw her friend's body and Nolan's nearby.

"I must admit, she had potential to be something useful, but ah well," Dmitri said.

"You…" she said with bile at the man behind so much grief over the past couple weeks. Her own and others'. Her Rage was relatively low, but the sight of Dmitri standing triumphant over Juanita's body was enough to drive her to frenzy. She let out a primal roar and charged towards him…then got caught in a nearly invisible spider web.

"You canines can be so touchy," he said as he waltzed over to her, holding her klaive. "Nonetheless, I'll enjoy your blood," he drew his fangs. As he was about to dig in, he suddenly felt very dizzy. He even dropped the klaive because he was so disoriented. "Your tricks won't work, she-dog," he said.

"Not me…" Amerie replied as she looked behind him. Dmitri turned around and faced another werewolf, one with all-white fur that seemed to shine. He looked over to the mess of webbing that ensnared Nolan's body. The web was there but the body wasn't.

"You! That's impossible, you're dead!"

"And come back as a Paradox spirit, just to give you hell before sending you there," Vertigo said with a dark smile. He hit Dmitri with another dizzy spell.

"Bullshit!" Dmitri replied as he stumbled over crates and whatnot.

"Not really; I saw the Weaver herself. She said how you've been abusing the powers you've been given, and that she'd restore me with some extra power if I kicked your ass…"

"In hell!" Dmitri shot a blast of flame at the Glass Walker. Vertigo stopped it with his hand and it dissipated harmlessly. Then the werespider let out a primal scream and charged at Nolan. All Amerie could make out at the point was a blur of arms, fangs and fur. The action came to a sudden stop as Vertigo had in hand deep in Dmitri's abdomen. They faced each other and growled, then Dmitri spat in Vertigo's face. The Garou was distracted, and Dmitri tackled him to the ground and held him with his multiple arms.

"Die _again_, damnit!" Dmitri growled. Just then, he shot up, arched his back and screamed in pain. He turned to look at Amerie, who had broken free and stabbed him. She drew her klaive-still inside Dmitri-around to the front of his chest where Vertigo had impaled him. He dropped to the ground, dead.

"I'm Untouchable, motherfucker."

"Hey boys," Ryn said as she landed near Mike and Joss outside, some fifty yards from the warehouse, "Where are the others?"

"I-I don't know," Joss said, "But the bomb's set to go off in-"

"Look!" Mike pointed towards the building and two figures were walking out as it exploded, "It's Amerie and…Nolan?"

"You're you again," Joss said to him.

"Eh, more or less…good to see you all got out okay," Nolan replied, visibly exhausted.

"Where's Juanita?" Ryn asked.

"Dead," Amerie replied, "I'll explain later."

A woman's voice suddenly said, "Yeah, we'll have to talk about this sometime," It was Carmen; she and her cabal had completed their end of the deal. A little bruised and battered, but no worse for wear.

The supernaturals were actually happy to see each other for once. Amerie said, "I was worried, maybe Erica and the banes might have-"

"We managed," replied Sergei, one of the mages.

"That's great and all," Mike said, "But what say we beat it before the authorities show?"


	19. Epilogue

The Seppuku Garden  
Epilogue

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

"You tryna look like Sisqo, fam?" asked Nolan's barber.

Nolan feigned a laugh, "It's a loooong story." Indeed, his death and subsequent ressurrection turned his hair completely white. Even his wolf forms now sported a snowy pelt. It was rather attractive then, but in Homid he just looked like an attention-starved teenager.

Carol had called a moot to discuss the (hopeful) conclusion of the caper. Nolan figured he'd get his hair cut beforehand. The pack was meeting for dinner at Ryn's right before going, since the whole thing revolved around their story.

"Yeah, you look nice," Amerie said after the barber was finished. Nolan had been staying with her, laying low for the past couple days since the showdown. He didn't even want to think about what happened back at his apartment. "Where does Ryn live again?" Amerie asked as she started her car.

"Off of Snow Road in Parma. You'll want to cross over to I-77 eventually."

"Huh. I don't be going to the west side that much."

"I have some friends in Parma, so I go out there every now and then."

"That figures."

"What?"

"Nothin', just that you act like a whiteboy from those parts. Talking all proper, wearing skintight clothes, listening to techno…"

"What, just because I don't speak heavy slang, hang my pants off my ass, or listen to fucking 50 Cent, that means I'm not black?"

"I ain't say that, just that you don't act like it."

"Fuck that! There's more to being black than being a thug and dying in the streets over something stupid like drugs."

"Motherfucker my cousin died over drugs!" Amerie said angrily.

"I did too!" Nolan replied. There was an awkward silence.

Amerie spoke up, "I'm just saying that-"

"-_I'm_ just saying that no, I'm not a 'gangsta' and I wasn't born on 69th and Woodland. But I'm still black, and more importantly I'm still Garou. I died once and I'll do it again for the Woman above and that's all that matters. And we just went past the exit."

"Well shit! Why didn't you say anything?"

"We were on a roll," Nolan said with a smirk.

"Hey guys!" Ryn greeted when Nolan and Amerie finally arrived, "Come in! I hope you like take-out Chinese, since I'm a lousy cook."

"It tastes okay," Joss said, "Though not as good as the real thing."

The two got settled in Ryn's living room. "I guess the question is, what happens now?" Amerie asked.

"Well," Mike said, "There are still stoner fomori on the loose. Odds are, the other packs around here will be sent out to deal with them before they set up anymore greenhouses."

Joss cut in, "That's cool, something we won't have to worry about right away. Quick side note, Nolan I like what you did with your hair."

"Thanks."

Mike shook his head, "It makes you stand out. People will remember a black guy with white hair."

Joss laughed, "Yeah, and King Kong here is really inconspicuous. And besides, Sisqo was hot back in the day."

"Who?"

Joss rolled his eyes, "Nevermind."

"Joss, how's Carmen doing?" Amerie asked.

"I talked to her the other day, she's already moving papers to get Pharaoh rebuilt."

"That's good," Ryn said, "We really couldn't have pulled this off without her and her friends. But what do the five of us do after all this?"

"Well…" Nolan said, "These past couple weeks have been crazy. Things are obviously not back to normal and I don't think they'll ever be. It wouldn't hurt if we looked out for each other from time to time."

"Pentex won't take this lying down, by the way," Amerie noted, "We need to keep our eyes open on the streets or in the club, and maybe get together to swap notes about what goes down."

"That makes sense," Ryn replied, "Maybe we can ally with an urban spirit to keep an eye on things on the other side, as well."

"Wait a minute," Mike cut in, "Are you guys saying we should…make this pack setup…permanent!"

Ryn smiled, "Why not?"

"...It's bizarre at best and a recipe for diaster at worst," said the Silver Fang elder Donovan Blood-Red Fangs of Winter (Goddamn, Nolan thought). The Forest City Sept held a moot via video conference with Mike's Sept of the Fire Ledges (composed of Silver Fangs and Fianna) and the Sept of the Purple Haze. Donovan continued, "I've served Gaia over twenty years and I've never heard of these 'Kitsune werefoxes.' And we're supposed to trust this creature who violated the sanctity of a caern and is in league with mages! These recent events have only proven that the other Changing Breeds aren't to be trusted at all! Michael, you will return here immediately at the moot's conclusion."

Carol replied, "Donovan, your caution and drive for self-preservation are admirable, but this is always where you and I differed: I'm more concerned with the 'who' than the 'what.' Sure some black people are drug dealers, but the whole race aren't pushers. Likewise, being a werefox or –spider or what have you doesn't make you Wyrm-tainted anymore than being Garou does.

"Juanita gave her life to help put an end to this chaos and Joss certainly risked his. However questionable his methods, he always acted with pure (enough) intent. And I _have_ heard of the hengeyokai, the shapeshifters of Asia. Whatever Joss' past, he has my blessing to join the kids' pack and this sept, as well as Miss Summers, should either so desire."

Donovan scowled as he shook his head, "Do what you wish, but our part in these affairs are over. You came to us in a time of need and we loaned you one of ours. That time is past and Michael will now return to his sept."

"Now wait a minute," Leroy Skin-Like-Nails, the Purple Haze leader, spoke up, "Let the boy speak for himself. He's earned at least that much."

All eyes were on Mike. He was a little speechless for a second, as no one ever gave him such a choice before. "Uh…um…well, it's like what Amerie said. There's still a lot of cleaning up to do around here after all that happened."

"That doesn't justify running with these mongrels!" Donovan said, raising his voice.

"We justify it by being. We're so different, our enemies didn't know what to expect. Dad, I'm going to stay." This took the others aback. Not that Mike wanted to stay with the motley pack so much as the urban Garou did not know who the young metis' parents were. "You're always talking about tradition this and tradition that, telling all these old stories. But I'm Fianna, it's all in my blood, and maybe I want to make up something new to tell. Carol offered me a job at the plant so that I can stay up here. I'll be back down to get my things this tomorrow or so."

Donovan's face was flush with anger and embarassment, "Fine! Run with these…'justifiers' if you wish. And when this little fairy turns the caern over to his mage friends, don't come crying to us!"

"And on that lovely note," Carol said, "I'm concluding the business portion of this moot. Any announcements that anybody's dying to make?"

A green-haired Glass Walker stood up and announced the official after-party in the basement. The Purple Haze and Fire Ledge Septs were invited to come on over on a Moon Bridge if they wanted. Some of the younger Garou from the Fire Ledges Sept sounded interested and began the umbral trip, but the elders obviously weren't and ended the video feed.

As people milled out of the conference room, the five shifters looked at each other.

"The Justifiers," Ryn said, "I rather like that…"


	20. PostEpilogue

The Seppuku Garden  
Post-Epilogue

Disclaimer: The characters are mine but the concepts are White Wolf's. Not getting paid, this is just for fun.

Nolan was rather unimpressed with the Kin DJ the sept hired. She was playing generic dance remixes of pop songs. The Purple Hazers enjoyed it enough, though. Most of them turned out for the party and were even intermingling with the Forest City Garou for once. It seemed that an unofficial truce had been reached between the two septs. Nolan had offered to spin for the rave, like he had been doing since he was fifteen, but they said it'd be silly for him to dj at a party held partly in his honor.

They were awarded much renown for their efforts, but Nolan didn't feel like celebrating. He had killed while possessed by the Wyrm, and knew that he could never face his best friend again after what happened. This was exactly what he didn't want to happen. Nolan downed another drink.

Ryn and Amerie were having drinks with some of the latter's friends.

"Mm, I know this song," Ryn said, "It's Spooky Tooth."

"That Garou punk band?" Amerie replied, "I vaguely heard of them.'

"They're pretty cool, I met them at Woodstock '99, actually."

"What was that like?"

"They're awesome performers. After that riot broke out, we hunted down the Malkavians responsible. That's when I found out I had an affinity for healing, in the aftermath. Their bassist is also a Child of Gaia and she help me sort things out. Those were the days," Ryn sighed wistfully, then finished her drink. "I'm gonna go dance."

The two Bone Gnawers watched, "Shake that pancake ass," one said. They laughed.

"Boy hush," Amerie replied.

"But really though, why don't you roll with us? We can always use another lady."

Amerie shrugged, "I already been through this much with them, I might as well see things through. But you guys will always be fam. See y'all on the dancefloor…"

Meanwhile, Joss had been cutting the floor with a Stargazer girl. He excused himself when he started getting tired, and went over to where Mike was standing.

"Aren't you the boy of the hour," Mike noticed Joss had been chatting with nearly everyone there.

"I guess it makes sense if they've never seen a werefox before."

"You can tell which ones are Uktena, because they ask the most questions."

"Yeah I did notice that. Say, have you seen Nolan anywhere?"

"Yeah he ran upstairs a second ago. He looked pretty upset, but I didn't know what to say."

"I'll see," Joss said then went upstairs himself.

Mike sipped his drink and watched the partygoers enjoying themselves. And for the first time in his life, he felt as though he was a part of something. A calm serenity washed over him, but that could have been the alcohol. He caught eyes with Ryn and Amerie on the dance floor. They motioned him to join in. Oh what the hell, he thought.

Joss found Nolan outside, looking over the highway. "Chilly night," Joss said.

"Not now," Nolan snapped.

"Nolan, everyone wants to see you. We've all been getting the big hero treatment."

"Is this a game to you! You and the others might be 'heroes,' but I was just a goddamned puppet this whole time." Nolan looked like he'd been crying.

"I know you're upset about Steve and I partly know what you're going through. He was your getaway, someone who didn't know about werewolves and shit. You hoped he never would because hanging out with him let you pretend to be normal. But you know as well as I do that we can't just stop being us."

"Even if he's still alive, I know I killed his date and there's no way I could ever… I don't know."

"It's okay, I pulled up some files online and a Steven McIntire was admitted to Lutheran Hospital after being 'attacked by pit bulls.' He's in IC but still alive. No one knows it was you."

Nolan looked away and didn't respond.

"Just thought you'd like to know," Joss said as he turned to go back inside.

"Joss, wait. I…thanks for checking up, I do kinda feel better."

They hugged tightly, then went to rejoin the party. They exchenged a couple smiling glances at each other and for the first time in awhile, Nolan partly looked forward to what the future might bring.


End file.
